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CORRESPONDENCE 



BETWEEJV THE 



HON. JOHN ADAMS, 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



AND THE LATE 



WILLIAJVI CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. 

BEcixNiWG IN 1C03, A^D E:^^DI^-G ii^" 1812. 



BY TIMOTHY PICKERING. 



9\ 



-v 

SECOND EDlTtON. 

-H>©®»^ n-^ 1876. v) 

'b SALEM: 

PUBLISHED BY GUSHING AND APPLETO.V. 

1824. 



XT -a 



DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT: 

District Clerk'' s OJice. 
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventh day of May, A. D. 1824, and in 
the 48th year of the Independence of the United States of America, Gushing and 
Appleton, of the said district, have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the 
right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit : 

" A Review of the Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams, late Presi- 
dent of the United States, and the late William Cunningham, Esq. beginning in 
1803, and ending in 1812. By Timothy Pickering." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An Act 
for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and 
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men- 
tioned ;" and also to an act, entitled " An Act, supplementary to an act, entitled 
" An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts 
and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein 
mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving 
and etching historical and other prints." 

JOHN W. DAVIS, 
Clerk of the District of Massachusett*-. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction - 1 

SECTION I, 
Thomas Jefferson - -- 7 

SECTION II. 
John Quincy Adams, and Mr. Jefferson's Embargo. - » J9 

SECTION III. 

The Causes, pretended and real, for removing T. Pickering 
from office — The Mission to France in 1799 — The Pardon of 
Fries. -- 44 

SECTION IV. 

Elbridge Gerry — Mr. Adams's Minister to the French Republic ; 
and a further account of the Mission instituted in 1799. 77 

SECTION V. 
Lieut Col. William Stephens Smith, son-in-law of Mr. Adams. 100 

SECTION VI. 
Alexander Hamilton. 109 

SECTION VIL 

George Washington. ..*__.. j21 

Conclusion. ------.-. 126 

APPENDIX. 

1. Extracts from Callender's pamphlet entitled "The Prospect 
Before Us ;" referred to in page 10. - - - - 128 



CONTENTS. 

Pass. 

2. Letter from Mr. Jefferson to Lieut. Governor Barry, of Ken- 
tucky, on the Judiciary; referred to in page 12. 129 

3. Note B, referred to in page 18. Concerning Mr. Jefferson's 
literary works. - - - - - - - - 130 

4. Note C, referred to in page 18. Correspondence of T. Pick- 
ering witii Mr. Adams, on the Declaration of Independence. 130 

5. Note D, referred to in page 18. Mr. Jefferson's Draught of 
the Declaration of Independence — And the Declaration as 

amended and adopted in Congress - - - - 132 

6. Note E, Remarks on the Treaty and Conventions, relating to 

the cession of Louisiana to the United States. - - 140 



(t^ The recurrence of Mr. Adams to the same topics, in various 
parts of his Correspondence, and the arrangements of the principal 
subjects in this Review, have occasioned some repetitions of the same 
facts and remarks. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A. PAMPHLET of more than two hundred pages has appeared, under 
the title of " Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams, Inte 
" President of the United States, and the late William Cunningham, 
" Esq. beginning in 1803, and ending in 1812." 

A family connexion appears to have had some influence to induce 
Mr. Adams to unbosom himself to Mr. Cunningham. In one of his 
letters he tells us that Cunningham's grandmother was the beloved 
sister of his mother. Two objects were obtained by Blr. Adams's 
disclosures : He gratified the keen appetite of his friend for secret 
history ; and eased his own mind, by giving vent to his spleen against 
some public men whom he hated. 

Mr. Adams, roused at length by his subject, and stimulated by 
the constant flatteries of his friend, resolves to write his own history ; 
because, says he, " no human being but myself can do me justice ; 
" ayid I shall not be believed. All I can say will be imputed to vanity 
" and self-love." In the progress of this Review, the reader will 
find these prophetic anticipations verified. He will see, from the 
numerous aberrations of Mr. Adams, that his statements are not enti- 
tled to belief; while every page is characterized by his vanity and 
self-love. 

In performing the task which Mr. Adams has imposed on me, I 
shall be obliged to take a pretty extensive view of his character- 
and present some features in the characters of others whom he has 
introduced into his letters. In these he has been pleased to give me 
a conspicuous place, making me a standing theme of reproach. 
But although so many of his shafts have been levelled at me, from 
his full quiver he has shot many at others ; especially at one who 
by way of eminence, may be justly styled The Federalist. Federal- 
ists generally, perhaps almost universally, were once the friends 
of Mr. Adams ; and they continued such, so long and so far as his 
public conduct permitted them to support him, consistently with 
their views of what the public welfare required. The mere abate- 
ment of their zeal wounded his pride, excited his resentment, and 
exposed them to his reproach. 

For myself, I determined on a formal vindication ; aware, at 
the same time, of the labour it would cost me, in lookmg for and 

2 



examining numerous documents, written and printed, of many years' 
standing. Accusations, which a page would comprise, might require 
a volume to refute. But Mr. Adams's calumnies are spread over 
many pages, and will bring into view a variety of topics for re- 
flection. 

The letters of Mr. Adams present a tissue of misrepresentations, 
perverse constructions, and unfounded assertions. The latter, in 
any other case, I might designate by a harsher term. While under 
the influence of his passions strongly agitated (and a little excite- 
ment, like a small match to a mass of gunpowder, is sufficient to 
produce an explosion) he may not be perfectly qualified to dis- 
tinguish between truth and falsehood. Suspicions, the offspring of 
a proud and jealous mind, are substituted iov facts ; and on these 
chimeras he rests confident assertions. But heedless precipitation, 
is itself criminal ; and its consequences may be as injurious to the 
party accused, as deliberate falsehood. 

By many persons, forgetting the latter years of his life, and think- 
ing only of his revolutionary services, Mr. Adams is hailed as 
" great and good," and is now familiarly designated by the flattering 
title of " the venerable sage of Quincy." 1 am as ready as any 
man to acknowledge — I have, not long since, before a very nu- 
merous assembly, acknowledged — Mr. Adams's merit in contributing 
largely to the vindication of the rights of the Colonics, and in effect- 
ing the independence of the United States : it was an act of justice, 
which I feel no disposition to retract. But "great men are not 
always wise;" and some, after many good deeds, commit inexcu- 
sable faults ; and, whether these injuriously affect one's country, 
or individual citizens, they ought to be exposed; for the public 
welfare, in one case ; and, in the other, to rescue individuals from 
the effects of undeserved reproach. 

In analyzing the " Correspondence," and some other letters of 
Mr. Adams written at the same period, it will be seen with what 
facility, and how little truth, he could represent facts and occur- 
rences concerning persons who were the objects of his hatred. 
This may serve to put on their guard readers of all his produc- 
tions, whether already Avritten, or which may hereafter appear, 
during his life, or after his death. Of the latter, I doubt not he has 
made ample preparation. The present examination will demon- 
strate, that when the interest of himself or of any member of his 
family is involved, or his vanity and ambition have room to operate, 
or meet w^ith checks and obstacles, little reliance can be placed 
on his statements. If ingenuity or charity can find an apology for 
him — and that will be a bad one — it will be, that his selfish and 
imgoverned passions blind him. 

Mr. Adams's virulent reproaches of federalists, of Hamilton and 
of me in particular, seem to have been written when he was 
tortured with the keen feelings of disappointed ambition (feelings 
which, after the lapse of eight years, since he failed of a re-elec- 



tion to the presidency, recurred in full force) — an ambition which 
could bear no opposition, or even lukewarmness, in regard to the 
means of gratifying it. He has himself described this passion in 
language that would not have occurred to any man who had not 
felt it in its utmost violence. " The desire of the esteem of others," 
says he, " is as real a want of nature, as hunger — and the neglect 
" and contempt of the world, as severe a pain as thegmit or the stone.''''* 

Of Mr. Jeti>rson I should have said nothing beyond what ap- 
peared in Mr. Adams's own writings ; and that, merely to con- 
trast his ditferent representations, to show their inconsistency, and 
that his course of conduct was directed exclusively by his views of 
existing interests of himself and family. But Mr. Jetlerson's letter 
to Mr. Adams, of October 12, 1823, published in the Boston Patriot 
in December, and thence introduced into other papers to be spread 
through the Union (for every letter from the pens of these two 
gentlemen is eagerly circulated in the public prints) appeared to 
me calculated to lead the readers into a misconception of their 
characters, and of the relations in which they stand towards each 
other. That letter, therefore, with its connexions, will demand 
some notice. 

What is history ? A mere detail of events may engage curiositj'' ; 
but it is the characters of the actors which especially interest 
the reader; and the exhibition ot their actions, whether these be 
good or bad, which furnishes useful lessons of instruction. Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Jefferson were conspicuous actors in the period of 
our revolution, and received applause. Future historians will inves- 
tigate their characters, and by their actions regulate the award of 
censure and of praise, for the information and warning of those who 
shall live after them. But, seeing they have at one time done deeds 
worthy of remembrance, why drag their faults and failings before 
the eyes of their countrymen, many of whom, without inquiry, 
seem now inclined to forget and forgive ? Let a celebrated ancient 
give the answer: — " In this, I apprehend, consists the chief part of 
" the historian's duty : It is his, to rejudge the conduct of men, 
"that generous actions may be snatched from oblivion, and the 
" authors of pernicious counsels, and the perpetrators of evil deeds, 
" may see, beforehand, the infamy that awaits them at the tribu- 
" nal of posterity."! The occasion calls on me to make some 
contributions for this object. Hence this Review will be extended, 
and assume, in some degree, the shape of historical memoirs. With 
respect to Mr. Adams, the truths I state may, without much diffi- 
culty, gain admittance ; for, by his own account, he has few 

* Discourses on Davila, No. 4 ; ascribed to Mr. Adams as the author. 

t Tacitus, Annals, iii. Murphy's translation. These ideas are compressed in 
the orig-inal : Praecipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur, utque pravis 
dictis factisque ex posteritate et infamia metus sit. 



friends among those denominated federalists ; and still fewer among 
his old enemies, the adherents of Mr. Jefferson.* 

Of all the persons vilified and reproached by Mr. Adams, Mr. 
Jefferson is the only one to whom he appears to have been solicit- 
ous to make reparation. But was he the only one entitled to it ? 
Do his eulogists think nothing due to the memories of Hamilton 
and Ames and other departed federalists, and to their surviving 
compatriots, who have been calumniated by the Adams family ? 
Are t*heir names to be blotted from history, or remembered only 
tO; be associated with infamy ? The " Correspondence" demands 
a full examination. As far as present circumstances require, I will 
examine it ; and make an essay to do justice to the parties whose 
names Mr. Adams has introduced, and made the subjects of his re- 
proaches or of his praise. Of the latter, the number is small 
indeed ; principally himself — his son J. Q. Adams — his son-in-law 
Col. William S. Smith deceased, and Elbridge Gerrj'-, also de- 
ceased. 

A just defence of myself and others, the subjects of Mr. Adams's 
bitter calumnies, compels me to expose his numerous aberrations, 
and to state some necessary truths. Truth is the soul of history. 
To ascertain some facts, my testimony may be useful. The value 
of that testimony will depend on the estimate formed of my charac- 
ter by my contemporaries. On that footing I am willing it should 
rest. 

* In March, 1C09, a short lime prior to the election of governor and senators 
of Massachusetts, two democrats of Northampton addressed a flattering- letter to 
Mr. Adams, requesting him to express his opinion respecting the present circum- 
stances of the nation, with regard to foreign powers and domestic parties. On the 
20th of that month, Mr. Adams sends an answer, in which he gives a dialogue, 
which he says passed in Holland, in 1784, between himself and Deodati, minister 
of the elector of Saxony. Deodati overwhelms him with compliments ; ascrib- 
ing to him the glory of having made his countrymen and their government repub- 
lican ; that he had made his country very celebrated ; that he had made it 
independent ; that he had made an astonishing treaty with Holland, and a mar- 
vellous peace with England, and made her acknowledge our independence. Mr. 
Adams tells Deodati, that he is too polite ; that he had no pretensions to have 
performed all those great achievements ; that he had acted a part in some of those 
affairs. Deodati then predicts, that his fate would be the same with all the 
ancient republicans, Aristides, Phocion, Miltiades, ScijDio, &:c. &c. To which Mr. 
Adams answers, "I believe it." Deodati goes on: "You will experience in- 
" gratitude, injustice:" — " You will be ill-treated, hated, despised, persecuted." 
Mr. Adams answers, " I have no doubt of all that : it is in the ordinary nature and 
••' course of things." Mr. Adams then proceeds to say, that a curious coalition of 
French and English emissaries, with Federal and Republican Libellers, had so 
completely fulfilled the prophecy of Deodati, and his own forebodings — so total- 
ly destroyed his reputation by their calumnies — that he had then neither power 
nor influence to do any thing for his country. Tiie last paragraph of his letter 
is particularly characteristic, and is in these words : 

" I always consider the whole nation as my children ; but they have almost all 

"•proved undutifal to me. You two gentlemen are almost the only ones, out of my 

" own house, who have for a long time, and 1 thank you for it, expressed a filial 

" affection for t a ,, 

John Adams." 



By introducing a few sentences in Latin, I do not desire to im- 
pose on the reader an idea of literature, to which I make no pre^ 
tensions ; but when a passage suited to my subject occasionally i'alls 
in my way, I take the liberty to use it. All I claim to possess is, 
some portion of common sense, and some force in argument ; and 
knowledge enough of my mother tongue, to exhibit facts, reason- 
ings and reflections, in a plain and perspicuous style, so that my 
meaning can be easily understood. To scurrilities I have been 
subjected through a large portion of my life : these I have desp'ised : 
but, when assailed in any point of morals, I have oftered a vindi- 
cation, or have caused the libellers to be prosecuted. This was a 
duty which I owed, not to myself only, but to the great number of 
respectable men who have honoured me with their friendship. 
Some of these have been pleased to say, that I owed it to my 
country, in whose service so large a portion of my life has been 
employed. The first suit was against one Dr. Reynolds, of Phila- 
delphia. The case was clear, to the satisfaction of the supreme 
court ; and so the cause was committed to the jury. Eleven of 
these were agreed; but one, a democrat, persevered in withholding 
his assent ; and the jury was dismissed. On the second trial, there 
were two democrats on the jury — and a verdict not obtained. 
Reynolds's counsel then observed to mine, that his client was 
"a poor devil," without property, and that if I should persevere, 
and finally obtain a verdict for damages, it would not operate as a 
punishment on the libeller ; but if I would drop the suit, he would 
make him muster money enough to pay the costs. The suit was 
dropped. One Baptiste Irvine, editor of a paper in Baltimore, 
published a libel against me. I brought an action against him : 
he published a recantation, and I forgave him. Libelled once in 
a newspaper in my native town, the printer was indicted, convict- 
ed, fined and imprisoned. I was then absent, attending a session 
in congress. Libelled once more in my native county, the libeller 
was prosecuted. He made his confession, which was entered on 
the records of the court ; and I forgave him. The last prosecution 
was of a printer in New-Hampshire. He also humbled himself — 
published his recantation — and was forgiven. 

Doubtless there v/ere many other libellous publications, which 
never came to my knowledge. 

Once I was hung in effigy in the Northern Liberties of Phila- 
delphia, on a gallows fifty feet high ; and a printed notice of the 
time was sent to me, then in congress at Washington. This was 
during the existence of president Jefferson's glorious, indefinite em- 
bargo ; of which I had taken the liberty to say, that I did not 
like it. On receiving the notice, the first thought that occurred to 
me was, that the effigy of one of the greatest and best men the 
United States ever knew, John Jay, had been exhibited, a public 
spectacle, in the same manner, and I believe in the same place ; 
and, so associated, I felt myself honoured by the elevation. 



6 

I close these introductory observations with one remark on the 
principal subject of this Review — 

JOHN ADAMS. 

No man, perhaps, has ever suffered more from disappointed am- 
bition and mortified vanity, than Mr. Adams ; for in no man, 1 be- 
lieve, were those passions ever more highly sublimated. At the 
first organization of the general government, he complained (so it 
has been, and I doubt not truly, stated) because the votes of the 
electors were not unanimous for him as well as for Washington.* 
At that time (some readers may need to be informed) before the 
constitution was altered, in the first term of Mr. Jefferson's presi- 
dency (specially, perhaps, for his accommodation, prior to another 
election) the candidates for the offices of president and vice-presi- 
dent were not respectively designated in the electoral votes ; but 
he who had the greatest number, if a majority of the whole, was 
to be the president ; and he who had the next greatest number was 
to be the vice-president : and in case more than one had such 
majority, and an equal number of votes, then the house of repre- 
sentatives, voting by states (that is, the representation from each 
state having one vote) were immediately to choose, by ballot, one 
of them for president. Under this provision of the constitution, 
Mr. Adams might hope, if the votes for him and Washington had 
been equal (and from his complaint that they were not, it is prettj'^ 
evident that he expected it) to have obtained the preference, by 
the choice of the house ; leaving to Washington the honour of 
being his " lieutenant." At any rate, he would have contemplated 
the fact with great complacency, that the people, acting by their 
electors, held him in equal honour with Washington. From his 
education as a lawyer, and his learned investigations of what con- 
cerned civil rule, he probably thought himself entitled to a pre- 
ference. But Mr. Adams has admitted and repeated a truth, too 
Tvell hiown, that " knowledge is by no means necessarily connected 
with WISDOM or virtue."! 

* Washington had all the votes — 69 ; Adams 34. 

t Defence of the American Constitutions of Government, vol. i. letter 29, 



REVIEW. 



SECTION 1. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



The first letter iu the " Correspondence" is from Mv. Adaniri, 
dated November 28, 1803, near three years after his rival, Mr. Jef- 
ferson, had intercepted him in his second march towards the presi- 
dent's chair. In this letter, Mr. Adams acknowledges the receipt 
of an oration of Cunningham's, and of a " brochure,"* in which this 
friend ascribes to Mr. Jeficrson the authorship of a pamphlet en- 
titled " Thoughts on Government, in a letter from a gentleman to his 
" friend." Mr. Adams says he was himself the author, and that it 
had been published with his name ; but, from the quotation of his 
correspondent, " suspects that some rascal had reprinted it, and im- 
'•'• puled it to the name of Mr. Jefferson." 

Jn his next letter, dated January 16, 1804, Mr. Adams returns 
to Cunningham a newspaper, in which, with a poignant sneer, he 
says, '' My poor * Thoughts on Government' are wickedly and libel- 
" lously imputed to ' the greatest man in America !' " — " libellous- 
" ly," because (such appears to be the obvious implication) his own 
views of government were, probably, so different from Mr. Jeffer- 
son's theories. In the same letter, Mr. Adams, in replying to Cun- 
ningham's request, to be furnished with information concerning Jef- 
ferson, communicates the sentiments I shall presently introduce. 

Mr. Jefferson, in his letter of October 12, 1823, acknowledges 
the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, dated September 18, which 
was a few days after his Correspondence with Cunningham had 
been published in Boston. This letter, no doubt, was written to 
apologize to Mr. Jefferson for the pointed reproaches he had utter- 
ed against him, in his confidential letters to Cunningham. On the 
1 2th of the next month, Mr. Jeflerson writes a consolatory answer 
to Mr. Adams, assuring him of his " unabated and constant attach- 
" ment, friendship and respect." But Jeft'erson had not then seen 
the Correspondence. " I had for some time," says he, " observed, 

* A pamphlet. 



8 

" in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious innuendoes of a 
" correspondence of yours with a friend to whom you had opened 
" your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by 
" tliat friend or his representative ; and now it is said to he actual- 
" ly published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been 
" given, and such as seemed most hkely to draw a curtain of sepa- 
" ration between you and myself." Mr. Jefferson then exclaims 
with indignation against the author of this outrage on private corres- 
pondence. This indignation is doubtless the echo of Mr. Adams's 
expression of resentment against Cunningham's son, the publisher 
of the Correspondence. But Mr. Adams, in his apologetical letter, 
did not tell Mr. Jefferson, that, although the present publication was 
" an outrage on private correspondence," yet it was, in fact, only an 
anlicipalion of a year or two — perhaps of a few months only — of 
the publication of the same correspondence, with his (Adams's) per- 
mission : for the injunction of secrecy was limited to his own life. 
His words are, " 1 shall insist that whatever I write to you upon 
" the subject shall be conlidential as long as I /roe."* It is true, the 
subject here directly referred to, was his removing me from office; 
but his details on that act, and his libels on my character, pervade 
the whole correspondence. Besides, why should Cunningham, the 
publisher, be more tender of Mr. JcfFerson's character than of mine? 
The latter was not less dear to me, my family and friends, than his 
to his family and adherents; and the humble talents I possessed 
were for as many years devoted to the service of my country : 
whether as faithfully, t am willing to submit to Mr. Jefferson's own 
decision. 

On the 10th of January, 1804, Cunningham informs Mr. Adams, 
that "■ he had for some time been collecting materials to present the 
" public with a full view of the character and conduct of BIr. Jef- 
" ferson ;" and asks Mr. Adams to furnish him with " some particu- 
" lars — interesting incidents in Mr. Jefferson's career;" at the same 
time telling him, that he had been informed " that such a work was 
" preparing by Mr. Coleman of New-York, under the eye of Ham- 
" ilton," which might induce him to relinquish it. In his answer of 
the 16th of the same month, Mr. Adams says, " I would not advise 
" you to relinquish the project you have in hand, because another 
" has the same. If the two persons you name are engaged in such 
" a work, you may depend upon it no good will come of it." Why? 
Mr. Adams subjoins the reason: "There will be so many little 
" passions and weak prejudices, so little candour and sincerity in 
" it, that the dullest reader will see through it." That is : Hamilton 
has always been Jefferson's opponent and enemy ; and whatever he 
says to Jefferson's disadvantage will be ascribed to his resentments, 
and will not be believed ; whereas, whatever you shall state, as aa 
impartial observer, will slick : — hccrcbit lateri lelhalis arundo.'t 

* Letter, Nov. 7, 1808. t The fatal shaft will fasten in liis side. 



Then, in compliance with Cunningham's request for information 
concerning Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Adams freely makes the following 
contribution : '• He [Jefferson] always professed great friendship 
" for me, even when, as it now appears, he was countenancing Fre- 
" neau, Bache, Duane and Callender." — " Anecdotes from my 
" memory would certainly be known. There are some there, 
" known only to him and me ; but they would not be believed, or 
" at least they would be said not to be believed, and would be im- 
" puted to envy, revenge, or vanity. I wish him no ill. I envy him 
" not. / shudder at the calamities which I fear his conduct is prepar- 
" ««g for his country ; from a mean thirst of popularity, an inor- 
" DiNATE ambition, and a want of sincerity." In this paragraph 
there is a clear implication, that some of the anecdotes which he 
could recite would present such ill-favoured features of Jefferson, 
and such fair ones of himself, that they would be imputed, by Mr. 
Jefferson's friends, to envy, revenge, or vanity. 

In the same letter of January 10th, Cunningham says, " I wish 
" to discover every arcanum that would be of use to develop the 
" true character of the Salt-Mountain Philosopher. This mountain 
" has increased the wonders of the world to eight ; and if Mr. 
" Jefferson would sink a tomb in a part of it for himself, it might, 
" better than being a mummy, preserve his body and memory 
" through succeeding ages." This pointed ridicule of his old and 
nearly half-century friend, Mr. Adams doubtless enjoyed : certain- 
ly it received no rebuke. 

If the "venerable and illustrious sages" of Monticello and Mon- 
tezillo* are ever to be reconciled, and confer and receive mutual 
forgiveness, there is no time to be lost. The latter, being eighty- 
eight years old, and " now trembling on the verge of the grave ;" 
and the former, an " octogenarian," waiting impatiently " for the 
" friendly hand of death to rid him at once of all his heavy hours." 

Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to Mr. Adams, is pleased to suggest, 
that whatever alienation between them had ever taken place, was 
to be ascribed to tale-bearers ; " filling our ears," says he, " with 
"malignant falsehoods; by dressing up hideous phantoms of their 
" own creation, presenting them to you under my name, to me under 
" yours, and endeavouring to instil into our minds things concerning 
" each other, the most destitute of truth." But who has not heard 
of the libels on president Adams (not omitting Washington) in the 

* It has been the practice, in European states, for gentlemen to give particular 
names to their t'i7/a*, or seats of residence in the country. This has been imitated 
in America: and in Virginia, and other states where there are not divisions of ter- 
ritory smaller than counties, it may have been found convenient. But in New- 
England, where counties are divided into small townships, and each distinguished 
by a legal and well known name, to give other names to small spots of a few acres, 
or to a farm, within a township, is preposterous, and worse than useless. Yet Mr. 
Adams has (to use a word of Mr. Jefferson's) belittled himself, by lately giving to 
the place of his residence in Quincy (a post-town too) the name of Montezillo — 
Little-Mount. Whether this was the effect of vanity, or a humble imitation of his 
friend elevated on the top of Monticello, I do not undertake to decide, 

3 



10 

pamphlet called " The Prospect before Us," written by Callender. 
under the countenance, patronage and pay of Mr. Jefferson ? of 
which libels Callender was convicted by a jury at Richmond ; for 
which he was fined and imprisoned, and for which he received (as 
he had a good right to expect) president Jefferson's pardon.* The 
patronage and pay were evidenced by two letters from Jefferson 
to Callender, which, after they had quarrelled, Callender put into 
the hands of Augustine Davis, Esq. of Richmond. From Davis 
they went into the hands of a very respectable citizen of Virginia, 
from whom 1 received them. Both were in Mr. Jefferson's own 
hand-writing, to me perfectly well known. Even the hand-writing 
of Davis, on the backs of the letters, noting his receipt of them from 
Callender, was known to me, in consequence of an official corres- 
pondence, of more than ihree years, when Davis was the post- 
master in Richmond, and I postmaster general. 

Extract of a letter, dated Monticello, Sept. 6, '99, /rom Thomas Jefferson 
to Mr. Callender. 
u gjn^ — By a want of arrangement in a neighbouring' post-office during the 
absence of the post-master, my letters and papers for two posts back were de- 
tained. I suppose it was owing to this that your letter tho' dated Aug. 10, did 
not get to my hand till the last day of the month, since which this is the first 
day I can through the post-office acknolege the receipt of it. mr. Jefferson t 
happens to be here and directs his agent to call on you with this & pay you 
50 dollars, on account of the book you are about to publish, when it shall 
be out be so good as to send me 2 or 3 copies, & the rest only when I shall 
ask for them." 

The next paragraph has no relation to "the book;" and the 
letter concludes with these words : 

" with every wish for your welfare, I am, 

with great regard. Sir, 

your most obedt. servt. 
« Mr. Callender" TH : JEFFERSON." 

at the foot of the second page. 

The Other letter is dated Monticello, October 6, '99. The first 
line acknowledges the receipt of a letter from Callender of Sept. 
29, and concludes with these words : 

"I thank you for the proof sheets you enclosed me : such papers cannot fail 
to produce the best effect, they inform the thinking part of the nation ; and 
these again supported by the tax gatherers as their vouchers set the people to 
rio^hts. you will know from whom this comes without a signature : the omis- 
sion of which has been rendered almost habitual with me by the curiosity of 
the post-offices, indeed a period is now approaching during which I shall dis- 
continue writing letters as much as possible, knowing that every snare will be 
used to get hold of what may be perverted in the eyes of the public. 

This is addressed to Adieu." 

"Mr. James Thompson Callender, 
Richmond."! 

* See the Appendix, A, for some of the libellous passages in Calleuder's book, 
t George Jefferson, nephew to Thomas Jefferson. 

^ Perhaps the reader will notice some singularities in the above extracts from 
Mr. Jefferson's letters : he writes acknolege for acknowledge., and begins his sen- 



11 

And on the back of each letter were these words, in the hand- 
Avriting of Mr. Davis : 

" Given by M. Callender to Aug. Davis." 

There can be no room for an apology for Mr. Jefterson, in pay- 
ing " fifty dollars on account of the book," on the ground that he 
might not know its contents ; for by the second letter it appears 
that Callender sent him the proof sheets, and that he approved of 
their contents ; " such papers," says he, " cannot fail to produce 
^ the best effect :" that is, Callender's book, " The Prospect before 
" Us," by its slanders on Washington and Adams, and on the whole 
federal party, would poison the minds of many well-intentioned 
people, inflame the passions of the democrats, and, by the aid of the 
whiskey and other internal taxes (always disagreeable to the mul- 
titude) thin the federal ranks, give victory at the pending election 
to democracy, and to Mr. Jefferson the long contemplated object 
of his " inordinate ambition," the presidency of the United States. 

This whole Callender affair, although no trial in our courts was 
of more notoriety, Mr. Adams has been willing to forget, since his 
son, John Quincy Adams, in 1 807, fully enlisted himself under the 
banners of president Jefterson. Callender was convicted under 
what has been called the sedition law ; a law enacted in Mr. Adams's 
presidency, and for its duration limited to that term. One of its 
objects — for it embraced other subjects — was to protect him from 
the torrents of calumny pouring upon him from all the streams of 
democracy. It was a law more abused than understood. While 
it provided for the punishment of slanderers — who are always liars 
(such being the import of the word) — it gave protection to honest, 
truth-telling men, in criminal prosecutions, for alleged libels on the 
president of the United States; by authorizing them to give in evi- 
dence the truth of the facts alleged, for their justification. 

In his letter, No. X, dated September 27, 1808, Mr. Adams 
enumerates various acts of Mr. Jefierson's administration, which he 
reprobates; as the repeal of the judiciary law, which Mr. Adams 
says he "always believed to be a violation of the constitution;" 
" the repeal of the taxes," so necessary to provide defences against 
foreign dangers, and to diminish the national debt ; and "there- 
" movals of so many of the best men, and the appointments of so 
" many of the worst." 

Even legislative acts, in Mr. Jefferson's administration, may be 
ascribed to him : for he had acquired such an astonishing ascend- 
ency with his party (though it would puzzle any impartial inquirer 
(o find a reason for it) that the manifestation of his wishes was suf- 
ficient powerfully to influence, if not to determine, the passing of a 
law. And this gentleman has been spending his last breath, and 

tences (excepting the first word iu a paragraph) with small instead of capital let- 
ters. It is his fashion in all his manuscripts that have fallen under my observation. 



12 

some of the remaining rays of his glimmering lamp, in attempting to 
destroy the independence of the judiciary — our surest defence 
against tyranny — by depriving the judges of the only safe tenure 
of their office, " during good behaviour ;" and rendering them, at 
short periods, absolutely dependent on the executive for reappoint- 
ment ; and, thenceforward, his degraded, miserable, corrupt tools. 
Were this pernicious project to obtain, we should no longer be gov- 
erned by certain laws, but by the varying passions of our rulers. 
Had this been our judiciary system when Mr. Jefferson was presi- 
dent, he would have hurled from the bench chief justice Marshall, 
because he did not hang Aaron Burr ; although judging with the 
wisdom and purity of Hale, and the integrity, ability and firmness 
of Holt. 

It is in his letter of July 2, 1822, to lieutenant-governor Barry of 
Kentucky, that we have seen broached these dangerous ideas. It 
is a letter which ought to be preserved, as a characteristic memori- 
al of a personage so much celebrated as Mr. Jefferson.* The su- 
preme court of the United States, with the independence essential to 
a due administration of justice, had given some decisions adverse to 
the pretensions and acts of certain individual states — to restrain 
them within the limits of the constitution, of which that court is the 
rightful interpreter : and if the national legislature, or the legisla- 
tures of individual states, overleap its boundaries, that court is the 
only constitutional power Avhich can bring them back. Yet thisis 
the power which Mr. Jefierson would destroy. " Let," says he, 
" the future appointment of judges be for four or six years, and re- 
" newable by the president and senate :" — that is, at the pleasure 
of one man, the president, who would or would not re-nominate the 
judges, according to their decisions on questions affecting himself, 
his friends, his party, his caprice, or his visionary notions ; and 
thus destroy the only power whose acts can be relied on — in the 
highest degree to which any human institution can be entitled to 
confidence — as most uniformly regulated by Reason. 

It deserves notice, that when Mr. Jefferson wrote his letter to 
lieut. governor Barry, of the seven judges then on the bench of the 
supreme court, five had received their appointments from Mr. Jeffer- 
son and Mr. Madison, from their own party. The judges Marshall 
and Washington received their appointments from Mr. Adams, in his 
better days — when he was himself a federalist. Yet these demo- 
cratic judges, according to Mr. Jefferson, were, by their judicial 
decisions, on solemn argument, violating the constitution, and an- 
nihilating state rights ! No ; the obvious solution of their proceed- 
ings is this : Feeling their independence of party, and, like all 
other men when not under the bias of personal interest, disposed 
to do justice, and knowing that their reputation and future fame — 
to which none are indifferent — will rest on the purity as well as the 

* It will be found in the Appendix, B. 



13 

ability of their decisions, they will, by their enlightened and impar- 
tial adjudications, satisfy their consciences, enjoy a present reward 
in the approbation of their fellow citizens, and transmit their names 
Avith honour to posterity. This is the Power, and the Only Power, 
which can present a check to the national legislature, whenever 
its acts shall transcend the limits of the constitution ; which was 
intended to bridle the curvetings of congress, as well as the 
flounderings of state legislatures ; assemblies which, like individual 
rulers, feeling Power, may sometimes forget Right. This is the 
Power which may decide, in the last resort, the important question 
now agitated, with great zeal and ability, in the house of repre- 
sentatives, on the making of roads and canals, by the authority of 
the general government ; a measure warmly advocated by some, 
and as warmly opposed by others, of that national assembly. 
Should it be enacted, any citizen, whose property shall be touched 
by the national road or canal, by instituting an action against the 
national agent, may bring the question before the supreme court ; 
and if that court pronounces the act unconstitutional, that power 
which holds the purse and the sword — the power so much dreaded, 
in anticipation, by Patrick Henry and some other distinguished 
citizens — must slop : for I am not willing to believe that congress, 
disregarding the court's decision, would by physical force carry 
the act into execution ; but Viould resort to the mode prescribed 
by the constitution, for obtaining, by its amendment, the desired 
power. But it is this moral pou-er in the supreme court, the power 
of Reason over brute force, which Mr. Jetferson would destroy. 
Every four or six years, he would "bring their conduct under re- 
vision"" of the president and senate ; and renew their appointments, 
or eject them from the bench, as their decisions should quadrate 
with, or oppose, the views, interests or passions of the president 
and senate for the time being : and one of the court's decisions, 
giving offence, might be the denial of the power of congress to 
make national roads and canals. Yet this is the Oracle to which 
one of the able opposers of the existing bill appeals, and by the 
force of whose name he hopes to influence the opinions of at least 
some members of the house, to reject the bill : and if one half of 
the eminence, which, in the gentleman's eloquent eulogy, is ascribed 
to Mr. Jefferson, were his due, his opinion, in all cases, would be 
entitled to much respect. " Against this power of the general 
" government, to make internal improvements, by means of roads 
" and canals, under any part of the constitution, Mr. Stevenson 
" said, he would bring the sanction of a high name in the annals of 
" our political history — the authority of a man, whose principles 
" had been as uniformly steadfast as republican, and whose virtues 
" were as pure as his genius was splendid ; a man, who had justly 
" been considered as the ' Apostle of Liberty.' It w^as unnecessa- 
" ry to say, that he alluded to Thomas Jeff'erson." His message 
to congress, Dec. 2, 180G, is then referred to. It is the same 



14 

celebrated message ui which Mr. Jefferson casts about hiin to know 
what to do with the surpluses of the public revenue soon to be ac- 
cumulated in the national treasury ; and suggests the idea of ex- 
pending them " for the purposes of public education, roads, rivers, 
" canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may 
" be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of 
*' federal powers." Mr. Jefferson adds, " I suppose an amendment 
" to the constitution, by the consent of the states, necessary : be- 
" cause the objects now recommended are not among those enu- 
" merated in the constitution, and to which it permits the public 
" moneys to be applied." His immediate successor, however, in- 
stead of being perplexed to find objects on Vvhich to expend Mr. 
Jefferson's surpluses, was obliged to study to find expedients to sup- 
ply deficiencies, and actually to borrow some millions of dollars. 

But to return to the topic of mutual forgiveness, of which the 
two distinguished gentlemen of whom I am speaking appear so 
anxious to make a public exhibition — What is its character 1 The 
apologetical letter of Mr. Adams would afford some information ; 
but it is not published, and I presume never will be : unmutilated, 
it would be a curiosity. Did he confess that the sentiments he 
once entertained and expressed of Mr. Jefferson were erroneous ? 
that he believed Mr. Jefferson never contemplated nor carried 
any measures injurious to his country? that he was not charge- 
able with a " mean thirst of popularity," nor an " inordinate ambi- 
tion," nor " a want of sincerity ?" and that he possessed no anec- 
dotes W'hich if made known would be disreputable to Mr. Jef- 
ferson ? And will Mr. Jefferson say, that he never countenanced 
Freneau, Bache, Duane and Callender, in writing and publishing 
their slanders against Mr. Adams, in order, by diminishing his 
popularity, to prevent his re-election to the presidency ? AVill Mr. 
Jefferson go one step further, and say, that he did not, when secre- 
tary of state, patronise, and in effect set up, the National Gazette, 
edited by Philip Freneau, a translating clerk* in his office ; tlie 
whole tendency of which — and thence we have a right to say its 
design — was to undermine the administration of Washington, con- 
ducted, as it always was, on federal principles? principles to which 
Mr. Adams was attached, and on the expected adherence to which 
his single election to the presidency was obtained. Or, the facts 
being considered as unquestionable, will Mr. Jefferson now admit 
thatlie sinned against Washington, and Adams, and the federal sys- 
tem of government, and truth, in the countenance he gave to those 
licentious libellers of them all? When these two gentlemen shall 
make these avowals and confessions, we may, in the exercise of 
aboundino; charity, ascribe their mutual forgivings to a temper be- 
coming Christian penitence — cm act not lightly pressing on persons 
zohose accounts are so near being closed. 

* An imperfect translator too, though qualified to edit such a gazette. This^ 
unsustained by a sufficient subscription, died, an early death. 



15 

In reviewing the " Correspondence," the reproaches uttered by 
Mr. Adams against Mr. Jeflcrson would, indeed, have found a 
place, for the necessary purpose of contrasting them with the sub- 
sequent expressions of friendship, respect and praise ; the latter 
drawn from him, or rather volunteered^ in consequence of the new 
political situation of his son, in Mr. Jeflerson's corps. I should not, 
however, have made a single animadversion on Mr. Jetferson, but 
for the appearance of his letter of October 12, in exculpation, not 
of Mr. Adams only, but of himself; apologizing for their mutual 
heart-burnings and ill will, by ascribing them to a cause, plausible 
indeed, and wrought up with no little ingenuity, and wanting only 
truth and fact for its basis. He insinuates, that tale-bearers have 
produced all the mischief: but he speaks guardedly — " there 7night 
'•'■ not be wanting those who wished to make it" — their political op- 
position — " a personal one, by filling their ears with malignant 
'•'falsehoods :" and that the " whispers of these people might make 
"them forget what they had known of each other for so many 
" years, and years of so much trial." Then, as an experienced 
philosopher, he closes the solution of their difference by a remark, 
just in itself, and proper, if it were applicable to the case of him- 
self and Mr. Adams. " All men," he says, " who have attended to 
" the workings of the human mind, who have seen the false colours 
" under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of 
•' others, have seen also those passions, in subsiding with time and 
'' reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring 
" to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colours." 
Very handsomely spoken indeed. But will Mr. Jefferson say, that 
ihe opinion he now entertains of Mr. Adams materially differs from 
that he entertained from the year 1796 to 1801 ? If, during that 
period, dark mists were thrown around Mr. Adams, did not Mr. 
Jefferson contribute to raise them ? If they were malignant va- 
pours, were they not generated by the men whom he patronised, 
and at least one of whom he paid (as we have seen) for that very 
purpose? Were those men some of the mischievous go-betweens, 
whose " whispers" made two old friends " forget what they had 
known of each other for so many years ?" Mr. Adams, however, 
during that period, seems not to have supposed, that those libellers 
were the agents of Mr. Jefferson. His constant professions of 
friendship had laid Mr. Adams's suspicions asleep. The discovery 
of the truth justified his branding Mr. Jefferson with " a want of 
" sincerity." 

To use such means to outstrip his competitor, and rise to the 
supreme power, was to the last degree dishonourable ; and, joined 
to his affectation of distinguished love for the people — to be mani- 
fested by a repeal of the internal taxes, in order to ease their bur- 
dens, or, to use his own cant, " not to take from the mouth of labour 
" the bread it has earned" — the practice of such means, and of such 
artifices, justly subjected Mr. Jefferson to another of Mr. Adams's 



16 

charges — " a mean thirst of popularity." And the evidences of 
these two, support the third charge — " his inordinate ambition." 

Mr. Adams will not thank me for the pains I have here taken 
to justify him before the public for uttering those reproachful 
charges against Mr. Jefferson : for, in his letter of apology, he may 
have taken them all back, together with every thing else in the 
" Correspondence" which could give offence to his half-century 
friend, the " patriarch" of republicans — lest they should have an 
inauspicious influence on the fortunes of his son. 

After all, what is there in Mr. Jefferson's letter, of October 1 2, 
to entitle him to the honour of a triumph — by some few so liberally 
decreed? Suppose Mr. Adams's accusations Avell founded — as 
every intelligent reader, and all others acquainted with the affairs 
of the United States during the last twenty-four years, may justly 
be inclined to believe — and suppose Mr. Jefferson to be conscious of 
their truth; did it require any great stretch of charity to forgive 
his friend and fellow " patriarch," 

" Now at his feet submissive in distress," 

and suing for pardon ? and when freely to grant it would present 
the idea of his own innocence^ and of Mr. Adams's guilt ? for, if not 
guilty, why make apologies, or sue for pardon ? And while Mr. 
Adams's situation bears not the most honourable aspect, that of his 
friend is singularly happy ; it exhibits the loveliness of innocence, 
the calmness of philosophy, and the meek, forgiving temper of 
Christianity. 

But in what originated Mr. Adams's solicitude so promptly to 
apologize, in order to prevent, or soften, the displeasure of his old 
friend ? Certainly not the belief that all his reproaches were un- 
founded. It was, as above sutrgested, the apprehension of the ef- 
fect of the " Correspondence," made public prematurely — before 
the time which he had himself assigned for its publication — and 
when he had not contemplated a crisis like the present. It was a 
xnomeni of high family concern. His son, who, by deserting his and 
his father's former friends, and joining their enemies, had risen anew 
to place and power — a boon which he saw was no longer attainable 
if he continued in their ranks, and persevered in their principles — 
was now a candidate for the highest object of republican ambition 
— the presidency of the United States. This elevation would de- 
pend on his standing well with the great dominant party, of which , 
Mr. Jefferson, originally the leader, was still, though not officially, 
yet in public estimation, the political head. Under these circum- 
stances, Mr. Adams hastens to make apologies and atonement to 
Mr. Jefferson, for the just reproaches, or the foul slanders — they 
must be one or the other — which he had uttered against him. Mr. 
Adams may avow either, as will best comport with his knowledge, 
his conscience, or his family interest. His choice will not change 
my opinion, nor the opinions of the distinguished citizens still living, 



17 

who have observed the course of public affairs, and of those who 
have conducted them, for the last three or four and twenty years. 

In letter No. IV, January 10, 1804, Cunningham (as before ob- 
served) requests information concerning Mr. Jefferson, supposing 
" no man living had so thorough a knowledge of his transactions as 
" Mr. Adams." In his answer of the 16th of the same month, Mr. 
Adams says, " You are mistaken when you say that ' no man living 
" has so much knowledge of Mr. Jefferson's transactions as myself.' 
" In truth I knoio but little concerning him.'''' Then, giving some de- 
tails, showing how small had been the intercourse between them, 
he adds, " Although we agreed always very well, there was no 
" very close intimacy heticecn us.'^'' Now observe the contrast. A 
little more than five years afterwards — when his son John Quincy 
Adams (having before devoted himself to Mr. Jefferson, and con- 
tinuing in full favour with his successor, Mr. Madison) had beea 
nominated minister plenipotentiary to Russia — Mr. Adams was ca- 
pable of making the following declaration : " I sought and obtained 
" an interview with Mr. Jefferson.* JVith this gentleman I had lived 
" on terms of intimate friendship ybr^ue and twenty years^ had act- 
" ed with him in dangerous times and arduous conflicts, and always 
" found him assiduous, laborious, and, as far as I could judge, up- 
" right and faithful."! And, farther on, Mr. Adams says, " 1 will 
" not take leave of Mr. Jefferson in this place, without declaring 
" my opinion, that the accusations against him, of blind devotion 
" to France, of hostility to England, of hatred to commerce, of par- 
'' tiality and duplicity in his late negotiations with the belligerent 
" powers, are without foundation." In the progress of this Review, 
the reader will learn how to estimate any of Mr. Adams's opinions, 
in cases where the intei-esls of himself or of his son may be affect- 
ed. 1 accord with Mr. Adams thus far — that Mr. Jefferson's devo- 
tion to France was not a blind devotion. The elucidation of this 
remark will appear, when I describe his embargo, and the support 
of it by John Q. Adams. 

So anxious has been Mr. Adams to conciliate the good will of 
Mr. Jefferson (for the persuasive reason I have mentioned) that he 
perverts the use of as plain words as any in our language. He 
has said (in one of his late published letters) that Mr. Jefferson 
and he were never rivals ; but that Jefferson and Hamilton were 
rivals ! Surely, every reader of English knows, thai they who con- 
tend for one common object are rivals. The common object, for 
which Adams and Jefferson contended, was the presidency. But 
Jefferson and Hamilton aimed to effect different measures in the ad- 
ministration of the government — and therefore were not rivals but 
antagonists. 

* This refers to affairs of 1797, Mr. Jefferson beino: then vice-president, 
t Mr. Adamses letter No. XIII. dated May, 29, 1809, in the Boston Patriot. 

4 ' 



18 

In noticing the extraordinary ascendancy acquired by Mr. Jef- 
ferson over the minds of his partisans and admirers, I remarked, 
that it would puzzle any one to account for it. And 1 ask, what 
evidences has he given to the world, of his being, what he seems 
generally reputed to be, a profound philosopher^ and a great states- 
man ? The former part of his character (which, by the way, has 
little to do with government) I leave with philosophers and men of 
science.* Of the latter, every man of common sense is qualified 
to judge, from its practical effects. For the rule, " By their fruits 
" ye shall know them," is alike applicable in politics as in morals. 
A list of the benefccnt acts of his eight years' administration of the 
government of the United States is a desideratum. Those of a con- 
trary character would rise to a large amount. But let us look back 
to earlier and more virtuous times. In the war of words with the 
mother country, antecedent to the war of arms, when every Ameri- 
can, who could hold a pen, employed it in defending American 
rights, it is natural to suppose that Mr. Jefferson's was not idle ; 
and then, probably (though his political lucubrations may not have 
passed the bounds of Virginia) he gained the reputation of holding 
a good pen ; to which Mr. Adams alludes in a letter to me, extracts 
from which will appear in the Appendix.! But the performance, 
for which Mr. Jefferson has been most distinguished, is the Decla- 
ration of Independence. This has been extravagantly eulogized, 
as if rising to a degree of excellence that not one of his cotempora- 
ries had the power to reach. In my humble opinion, however, 
much of its merit is owing to the amendments made when reported 
to con"-ress, where one fourth of the whole was struck out, and 
some things (not many indeed) were introduced. In my letter to 
Mr. Adams on this subject, I remarked, that the Declaration con- 
tained /cio new ideas. Mr. Adams, in his answer, says, not one ; but 
he thinks the best parts were struck out. I shall give in the Appen- 
dix+ a copy of Mr. Jefferson's draught of the Declaration, which I 
took some years ago from one in his own hand-writing; by the 
comparing of which with the Declaration as voted and proclaimed 
by congress, every reader will be enabled to judge for himself. 

But Mr. Jefierson added to the United States the rich and im- 
mense territory of Louisiana ; thus extending their dominions from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ! Yes — the acquisition was effect- 
ed in his presidency ; and his merit in the case shall now be ex- 
hibited. 

By the treaty of Oct. 27, 1 795, between the United States and 
Spain, the king, assenting to the claim of the United States to the 
free navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, 
stipulated to permit the citizens of the United States, " for the space 
" of three years, to deposite their merchandises and efiects in the 
" port of New-Orleans, and to export them from thence without 

^ See Appendix, B. t Appendix, C. | Appendix, D. 



19 

•' paying any other duty than a fair price for the use of the stores ;" 
and promised either to continue this permission, or to "• assign to 
" them, on another part of the banks of the Mississippi, an equiva- 
" lent establishment." The benefit of this stipulation was enjoyed 
by our citizens until 1802, when the Spanish intendant at New-Or- 
leans " occluded" (as Mr. Jefferson said) — shut them out, from this 
deposite, without assigning any equivalent establishment elsewhere. 
This violation of the treaty-stipulation was not to be endured ; and, 
upon representations to the government of Spain, the place of de- 
posite was restored. To whom this interruption of our right is to 
be ascribed, will presently be seen. 1 presume it was to prevent 
its recurrence, that Mr. Jefferson instructed his minister at Paris 
(the late chancellor Livingston) to obtain, as I have understood, a 
cession of the isle or port of New-Orleans, or some part of the 
eastern bank of the Mississippi — that is, of West Florida, or of 
both — to the United States. It is not a litde curious, that a negotia- 
tion for pui-chasing supposed Spanish territory should be carried on 
at Paris^ with the French government, instead of Madrid^ with the 
government of Spain, In the same manner, when, at a subsequent 
period, Mr. Jefferson proposed to congress the purchase of Florida, 
the certain property of Spain, the negotiation was instituted at Paris, 
The truth is, that France exercised a complete ascendancy over 
Spain, which was no longer a free agent. Godoy, the prince of 
peace, the favourite of the queen, ruled Spain in the name of her 
weak king ; and Godoy was Bonaparte's tool. The " occlusion" 
of the port of New-Orleans against American merchandise and ef- 
fects excited keen resentment in the United States ; and some were 
ready to send an armed force to occupy the port ; and the poor 
Spaniard was the subject of severe reproach. But I presume it 
w^as not then known, that the king of Spain had been, before that 
time (viz. on Oct. 1, 1800) compelled to rcconvey Louisiana to 
France. This fact exposes the secret of the interruption of our 
right of deposite at New-Orleans ; and it was against the French 
government that the indignation of the United States should have 
been excited, had the retrocession of Louisiana to France been 
known. The opening again of the port of New-Orleans arose from 
the circumstance, that Bonaparte was not prepared to take imme- 
diate possession of Louisiana. But the territory having been 
actually reconveyed to France accounts for the unsuccessful at- 
tempts of Mr. Livingston to obtain a cession of Orleans and part 
of the adjacent province of West Florida. 

At length, during the short and feeble administration of the British 
government which succeeded Mr. Pitt's, a peace was negotiated at 
Amiens between Great Britain and France. Bonaparte seized this 
interval to prepare a fleet and army to go and take possession of 
New-Orleans and the whole province of Louisiana. But the British 
government soon perceived, that it was, in effect, an armistice^ rather 
than a peace, which had been concluded at Amiens ; and that the 



20 

war must be renewed. And finding that Bonaparte was going to 
add the immense province of Louisiana — a new world — to the do- 
minions of France, a British ileet was despatched to block up the 
pons (in Holland) where Bonaparte had assembled military forces, 
and ships to transport them to New-Oi-leans. 

It was in this state of things that Bonaparte became willing to 
transfer to the United States — not the island of New-Orleans and 
part of the adjacent territory — but the whole province of Louisiana 
— the zvhole or no part. For he was justly apprehensive, that, its 
retrocession to France being then known, Great Britain would send 
an adequate force, and take possession of it for herself. If there- 
fore he could raise some millions of dollars by the sale of the pro- 
vince to the United States, the sum would be so much clear gain. 
Under these circumstances, the transfer to the Uniled States was 
made, and (if 1 mistake not) rather pressed on our envoys, chancel- 
lor Livingston and Mr. Monroe ; and they agreed to receive it, 
stipulating the price at filteen millions of dollars. They gave to 
Mr. King, American minister in London, information of the treaty ; 
with which the British government, to whom he made known the 
transfer, was perfectly satisfied. And I recollect that when Alex- 
ander Baring (son-in-law to the late Mr. Bingham, and whom 1 had 
known in Pliiladelphia) came from England to Washington, to re- 
ceive the six per cent, stock created to pay for this purchase, he 
told me, that the British government would sooner have paid the 
money stipulated for the purchase, than have suffered Louisiana to 
become a province of France. 

Thus, to British policy and interest are the United States indebt- 
ed for the acquisition of Louisiana. And, if gratitude ever enters 
into the consideration of nations, we owe it to Britain for that ac- 
quisition, as really as to France for her assistance in acquiring our 
independence. But on the score of gratitude, in these two cases, 
we are indebted neither to one nor to the other. Each of them 
acted to serve her own interest exclusively : France, to diminish the 
power of Britain by cutting off thirteen flourishing colonies ; and 
Britain, to prevent an accession to the power of France in possess- 
ing the immense territory of Louisiana, and a consequent control over 
all our western states, which depended on the Mississippi, and the 
rivers running into it, for the conveyance of their boundless pro- 
ducts to a market. Yes, we owe it to the naval power of Britain, 
that Louisiana is not now a province of France. Bonaparte had 
already sent his prefect, Mr. Laussat, to New-Orleans, to receive 
possession ; and he waited only for the arrival of the French fleet 
and army, to take upon himself the administration of the govern- 
ment.* Before I take leave of Louisiana, I will add a few obser- 
vations. 

At the close of the seven years' war, so disastrous to France, 

* See Appendix, E. 



which was terminated by the peace of 1763, she ceded to Spain— 
apparently in consideration of the losses wliich the latter had sus- 
tained by being drawn into that war, towards its close, in aid of 
France — the province of Louisiana, westward of the river Missis- 
sippi, and the island of New-Orleans on its eastern side. The 
whole of Florida was ceded by France and Spain (each her part) 
to Great Britain. In the course of the war of our revolution, 
France and Spain became once more engaged in a war with Great 
Britain. Spain seized the occasion to possess herself of Florida ; 
and, at the treaty of peace of 1783, Britain relinquished her right 
to it. 

1 entertain no doubt, that at that time the government of France 
contemplated the regaining of Louisiana, and waited only for some 
favourable events to accomplish her purpose. It was unquestiona- 
bly with this in view, that, in the negotiations at Paris, in 1782, for 
eft'ecting a general peace, the French minister represented to our 
commissioners, authorized to treat of peace with Great Britain, 
that they ought not to claim the country westward of the Allegany 
mountain, but to suffer it to go into the hands of Spain. Mr. Jay, 
however, (for he was obliged for a while to act alone, though Dr. 
Franklin was also a commissioner) resisted all the French intrigues, 
as w'ell at Paris as in London ; and thus that country was secured 
to the United States. It was, unquestionably, with a view to this 
land-scheme, and some other plans injurious to the United States, 
that the French government exerted itself, and successfully, through 
its minister to the United States, la Luzerne, and the secretary of 
legation, Marbois, to obtain from congress instructions to the 
American ministers for negotiating a peace with Great Britain, 
wholly unworthy of the earlier fir-m, dignified and independent acts 
of that body. The commissioners were instructed ''to undertake 
"nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce, without the know- 
" ledge and concurrence of the ministers of the king of France, and 
" ultimately to govern themselves by their advice and opinion." 
This appeared to Mr. Jay so dishonourable to the United States, 
and fraught with such evil consequences, that he laid the instruc- 
tion aside, and, in his negotiations with the British minister, con- 
sidered only what the important interests of his country required; 
and thus formed the basis of the treaty of peace, so highly advan- 
tageous to the United States. 

In pursuance of our treaty of 1795, with Spain, commissioners 
were to be appointed to run the boundary line between the territo- 
ry of the United States and Florida, from the river Mississippi to 
the Atlantic ocean. Andrew Ellicott was the commissioner on the 
part of the United States ; and, with the requisite attendants, he 
repaired to the Natchez, the place designated in the treaty for the 
first meeting of the commissioners. From the time of his entering 
the Mississippi, after his descent by the Ohio, and coming to the 
first Spanish posts, and thence proceeding downwards towards the 



22 

Natchez, there were mysterious appearances, suggesting the idea 
that delays and difficukies would be interposed, to prevent the run- 
ning of the boundary line. The apprehensions of Mr. Ellicott 
were realized, after his arrival at the Natchez. He there received 
satisfactory information, that the governor in chief at New Orleans, 
and the sub-governor (Gayoso) at the Natchez, in some private and 
confidential communications, had suftered the secret to escape 
them — that it was intended, by delays and evasions, to defeat the 
attempt on the part of the United States to run the boundary line, 
and the execution of the treaty, in what concerned that country. 
Mr. Ellicott states, that governor Gayoso's original letter to a con- 
fidential friend, to that etfect, had been in his hands. Accordingly, 
in the correspondence of this governor with Mr. Ellicott are seen a 
series of apologies, excuses, and empty professions, all contemptible, 
and offered in the face of treaty articles too plain to require a mo- 
ment's hesitation as to their meaning. One of the articles stipulated 
the evacuation of the posts occupied by Spanish troops on the 
eastern bank of the Mississippi, within the known boundary of the 
United States. Of these the Spaniards still kept possession. All 
these occurrences are accounted for by the information next re- 
ceived, and stated by Mr. Ellicott — " Thai the country either n-ns or 
" would be ceded to the Republic of France.''''* It will be recollected 
that Spain had concurred with the other most considerable European 
nations in warring against France, in the early ^^ears of her revo- 
lution ; but meeting with defeats, and in danger of being overrun 
by the French arms, her prime minister, Godoy, made peace with 
France ; and for this act, at that time so auspicious to Spain, he 
had conferred on him the extraordinary title of Prince of Peace, 
This was in the year 1795. From this time the Spanish councils 
were under the influence of the French republican government ; 
and, eventually, appear to have been in a state of complete subju- 
gation, in whatever materially concerned the interests of France. 
And to that controlling influence are to be ascribed all the delays, 
difficulties and injuries experienced by the United States and their 
citizens, in every thing relating to their interests in the country in 
question. 

So much for the friendship of France to the United States ; 
which, according to the declarations and demands of her revolu- 
tionary rulers, and of many of our own citizens, imposed on the 
United States obligations of everlasting gratitude ! That it was 
for the purpose of securing the independence of the United States 
that France rendered the aid we received from her, is true ; but 
this was solely to weaken her old adversary, by lopping off an im- 
portant limb. In justification of his treating with the Americans, 
Louis XVI said expressly, that he acted " zoith no other view than 
" to put an end to the predominant power which England abused 

* Ellicott's Journal, p. 44. 



23 

" in every part of the globe ;" and, " that the only means of being 
" secured from it, was to seize the opportunity of diminishing it.'''' 
That opportunity was the war in which we had engaged, to sepa- 
rate the United States from Great Britain. The king said, further, 
that he formed a connexion with the United States, " because his 
" SAFETY, THE INTEREST OF HIS PEOPLE, invariable poHcy, and, above 
" all, the secret projects of the court of London, imperiously laid him 
^^ under the necessity.^'' The secret projects, of which the French 
government was so apprehensive, were doubtless the measures then 
contemplated by the British government to affect a reconciliation 
and re-union of the United States with Great Britain ; and to defeat 
them, and so to prevent a re-union, was the leading motive to the 
French alliance ; while Americans fondly believed, that friendship 
for them zoas its basis. And congress itself, from feeling or policy, 
pronounced Louis the Sixteenth, " the Protector of the Rights of 
Mankind.'"* Indeed the citizens of the United States, rejoiced at 
the assurance of the aid and co-operation of France, thought only 
of the beneft, without adverting to the motives in which it originated. 

During our revolutionary war, and ever since, we have been 
taught to believe that Louis XVI, and his queen, Maria Antoinette, 
entertained a personal regard to the United States and their cause. 
This was possible, and in the glow of our gratitude we cheerfully 
believed it. But it was unnatural that a monarchical power, whose 
will was law, should desire to promote the establishment of free 
republican governments. This idea, now so obvious, is shown to 
be correct, by the statement of the fact, in the interesting memoirs 
of madame Campan, published at Paris since the restoration of the 
Bourbons to the throne of France. And we see it strikingly exem- 
plified in the avowed principles of the emperors and kings who 
compose the so called " Holy Alliance." 

The sentiments of the persons Avho composed the court of Louis 
XVI were doubtless similar to those manifested by the king and 
(jueen ; but all sacrificed their feelings, in regard to republicanism, 
for the sake of humbling their great rival, England. Of all the 
French officers, of name, who served in the United States, and re- 
turned to France, la Fayette, I believe, stands alone, invincibly firm 
in his original principles, for the establishment and maintenance of 
free governments. We have seen the present monarch of France, 
his ministers and armies, by their operations in Spain, the last year, 
violating her independence, and overturning her free government ; 
and who can doubt that his brother, Louis XVI, his ministers and 
armies, under like circumstances, would have acted the same part? 
And that their aid to the United States, in supporting their inde- 
pendence, was rendered solely for the interest of France, I trust has 
been satisfactorily shown.t 

* Resolve, May 6, 1778, in the journals of Congrees, 

t Of the expenditures of France, 'in the maintenance of troops and ships ap- 
plied directly to our aid, 1 have no data on which to form an estimate ; but the 



24 

In the face of all these clear and incontrovertible evidences, that 
the views of France in aiding us in our revolutionary contest were 
exclusively selfish^ and that she aimed at doing serious injuries to 
the United States in its conclusion, Mr. Jefi'erson in his letter to 
Mazzei* charged them with "ingratitude and injustice towards 
France" ! He charged the enlightened and eminent statesmen and 
patriots who formed the federal constitution, and who organized, 
and were then administering, the government under it, as " Anglican- 
" monarchical-aristocratic ; whose avowed object it was, to impose 
" on the people the substance, as they had already given them the 
'■^ forms, of the British government." And, after mentioning various 
measures of the federal government as political " heresies — estab- 
'■^ lished for the purposes of corruption,'''' he points his reproaches at 
the officers of our government and the members of congress who 
had embraced them — " the men," he says, " who were Solomons in 
"counsel and Samsons in combat, but whose hair had been cut off 
"by the whore England." For this infamous slander, which em- 
braced Washington, Hamilton, and all the eminent men who had 
formed the constitution, and established the measures referred to, 
Washington, when he became a private citizen, called Jefterson to 
account ; requiring of him, in a tone of unusual severity, an ex[)la- 
nation of that letter. In what manner the latter humbled himself, 
and appeased the just resentment of Washington, Vv'ill never be 
known ; as, some time after his death, this correspondence was not 
to be found ; and a diary for an important period of his presidency 
was also missing. My information on this subject is derived from 
an authentic source. The late Dr. David Stuart, of Virginia, who 
married the widow of Mrs. Washington's son Custis, first mentioned 
the matter to me, twenty years ago ; and five ^^ears afterwards, at 
my request, stated the circumstances in detail, in a letter, with a 
voluntary " permission to make what use of it I should think pro- 
" per." A train of occurrences within my knowledge would enable 
me to unravel what may seem mysterious in this affair ; but I for- 
bear. 

Prior to the appearance of Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, 
" there was," says Dr. Stuart, '■'■a friendly correspondence between 
" him and Washington — since then, none :" and " before that letter, 
" he used always either to call on him when passing by, or to send 
" an apology for not doing it." 

capture, plunder, and -vvanton destruction, of American ships and merchandise, by 
the French, have been estimated, by a well informed and judicious merchant, the 
late Thomas Fitzsimons of Philadelphia, at fifty millions of dollars ; to wit — twen- 
ty millions under the orders of the Directory and their ag^ents, and thirty millions 
during the imperial reign of Bonaparte. These fifty millions may fairly be set off 
against the expenditures of France directly made by her in the cause of the United 
States. The loans of money by France to the United States were all repaid. The 
estimates of Mr. Fitzsimons were made at my request, and communicated to me 
by a letter Avhich I have not yet found ; but I well remember their amount. 

* Mazzei, an Italian gentleman, was in Virginia prior to our revolution ; and 
then the apparently intimate acquaintaace between hiiu and Mr. Jefferson took 
place. Mazzei returned to Italy. 



25 

Notwithstanding these lamentations of Mr. Jefferson to his friend 
Mazzei, of pralpable deviations from republican principles in the 
form of the federal constitution^ and in the administration of the govern- 
ment^ under Washington, Hamilton, and the eminent federalists of 
that period in congress ; yet, after he had gained the president's 
chair, 1 do not recollect a single amendment to that "■ Anglican- 
monarchical-aristocratic" constitution to have been recommended 
by him ; nor, that more than one was made during his presidency ; 
and that one should have been called an alteration^ not an amend- 
ment. Its object was, by requiring the electors to designate the 
person to whom they gave their votes for president, and the one 
whom they voted for to be vice-president, to prevent the recurrence 
of a contest like that between him and iMr. Burr, when the states 
represented in the house were equally divided. And as to his mea- 
sures, 1 know not any, that related to principles of government, 
which Mr. Jeflerson could pretend were more republican than those 
of his predecessors. As to other principles, 1 will not say there 
was no difference ; but in regard to them 1 content myself with re- 
marking, that, during Washington's administration, and a part of 
that of his inmicdiate successor, there were no ostentatious profes- 
sions of regard to the public welfare, nor similar declarations re- 
peated and repeated of a desire of settling existing controversies, 
in an amicable and friendly manner, with any foreign nation. 

Under Mi-. Jefferson's administration, three treaties were nego- 
tiated with Great Britain. The object of the first (negotiated by 
Mr. King, pursuant to his instructions) was, an adjustment of the 
northwestern boundary ; but, from an apjirehension that its execu- 
tion might derogate from a claim as to the northern boundary of 
Louisiana, it was ratified on the part of the United States with an 
exception which defeated the treaty. Another, a treaty of amity 
and commerce with Great Britain, was negotiated by ministers of 
Mr. Jefferson's own selection — James Monroe and the late William 
Pinkney. These gentlemen, it must be presumed, well understood 
the interests of their country; and no one will question the dili- 
gence and faithfulness of their endeavours to promote and secure it, 
in the terms of that treaty. They thought the informal arrange- 
ment ofi'ercd by the British negotiators — in whose sincerity they 
saw reason to confide — would prove, in practice, an adequate pro- 
tection to our seamen, on board American merchant vessels, against 
impressment. In reference to that informal arrangement, they say, 
" We persuade ourselves we shall place the business almost, if not 
'• altogether, on as good a footing as we should have done by trea- 
" ty, had the project which we offered them been adopted."* This 
treaty, however, Mr. Jefferson sent back, without laying it before 

* From different sources I received information, from which it appeared clearly, 
to my apprehension, that with all the parade, kept up for several years, of nego- 
tiating a treaty of amity and commerce with Great Britain, Mr. Jefferson really de- 
sired none. A letter from a friend of his, now before me, contains this passage : 

5 



26 

the senate, although it was then in session ; because there was not 
a formal stipulation, by an article in the treaty, against any im- 
pressments whatever, of seamen on board those vessels : a stipula- 
tion which, from the experience of the American government, dur- 
ing a series of years, he had reason, amounting to moral certainty, 
to believe to be unattainable ; and therefore, 1 infer, he made such 
a formal stipulation a sine qua non. A third treaty he readily rati- 
fied. This was negotiated by Mr. King, pursuant to Mr. Jeffer- 
son's instructions. its object Avas, by a compromise with the 
British government, to put an end to the controversy concerning 
the ante-revolution debts due to British merchants, and to extin- 
guish the British claims, by paying to its government a round sum 5 
in consideration of which, that government undertook to satisfy the 
demands of its own subjects. This sum was six hundred thousand 
pounds sterling — equal to f)2,264,000 ; which was paid from the 
treasury of the United States. The merchants in the commercial 
states were the debtors to the British merchants, and generally 
speaking (I always understood) had, prior to Mr. Jay's treaty, paid or 
compromised their debts, to the satisfaction of their British creditors. 
The treaty of peace of 1783 recognized those debts; and the 
United States stipulated, that no legal impediments should be op- 
posed to their recovery : but such impediments were opposed; and 
that stipulation remained a dead letter. When, therefore, fresh 
causes of controversy arose, in 1793 and 1794, Washington, to 
prevent a war with Great Britain, instituted a new mission to that 
government, and appointed Mr. Jay, the able and principal negotia- 
tor of the treaty of peace of 1783, envoy extraordinary and minis- 
ter plenipotentiary, to negotiate and by treaty to settle the new con- 
troversies, and those which had arisen from the non-execution of 
some of the articles of the treaty of peace. In this negotiation, 
Mr. Jay honestly renewed, or rather provided for the due perform- 
ance of, the original stipulation relative to British debts. This, 
unquestionably, was one thing which contributed to render his trea- 
ty unpopular, in some parts of the Union ; while its terminating the 
recent controversies which hazarded our peace with Great-Britain 
— disappointing the vehement haters of that country and at the 
same time ardent lovers, of France — raised up enemies to its ratifi- 
cation, in every part of the Union. It was ratified, however, and 
executed ; and procured for our merchants, who had sufiered by 
British spoliations, indemnities to the amount of more than five 
millions of dollars, paid to them by the British government. What 
did they obtain for ten fold more aggravated spoliations committed 
on their vessels and merchandise, and to ten times that amount, by 
the republican and imperial governments of France ? Not one cent. 

"I perfectly remember he terminated a conversation on this subject, by observing-, 
" that before a treaty could be ratified with Great Britain, she might no longer exist 
" as an independent nation." He imagined (as I learned from another source) that 
Great Britain must sink under the weight of her debt, and the arms of Bonaparte, 



27 

Every independent American must, I presume, view this subject 
(our relations with France) in the light in which I have now placed 
it ; and be willing, should it become necessary, to concur with the 
only great, free and independent nation on earth, besides our own, 
in measures which the interest and welfare of both may require, to 
prevent the re-establishment of despotism in the New World. 

That France afforded assistance to the United States, in our revo- 
lutionary war, exclusively for her own interest, had long ago been 
manifested; and it seems impossible that with Mr. Jefferson it 
should ever have been a subject of doubt. But the people of the 
United States having unwittingly entertained and steadily cherished 
the contrary opinion, their prejudice was too strong to yield even 
to the force of moral demonstration ; and the leaders of the oppo- 
nents of the federal administration seized on this honest prejudice 
in favour of France, to obtain popularity ; while by every means 
they excited and promoted opposite sentiments towards Great 
Britain, which the resentful passions engendered in the revolutiona- 
ry war rendered it easy to propagate among the people. These 
prejudices, diligently cultivated, were among the chief means by 
which Mr. Jefferson and his partisans acquired a predominance ; 
and they may now safely abandon the scaffolding by which they 
rose to power. Still, however, for the purpose of enjoying, exclu- 
sively, all the benefits to be derived from its possession, they con- 
tinue to arrogate to themselves the name of Republicans ; willing 
and desirous that their federal opponents should, by the people, be 
deemed aristocrats and monarchists. Yet to the Federalists are 
they indebted for their republican constitution and repxiblican govern- 
ment ; both of which are now very good things, and in their hands 
quite unexceptionable. Many years ago, in the senate of the 
United States, I heard the most frank, the most bold, and in my 
opinion the most able politician, of the, so called, republican party, 
pronounce a eulogy on the constitution, as strong and honourable 
as words could express. And even Mr. Jefferson must have enter- 
tained the like opinion ; or, in conformity with his libellous remarks 
on it to his friend Mazzei, he would have proposed to change its 
features. And now he appears to desire only one alteration — to 
destroy, as I have before remarked, the independence of the 
judges. And having three and twenty years ago pronounced the 
citizens of the United States, composed of tlie different political 
parties, " all republicans, all federalists," it might have been ex- 
pected that by this time, at least, he would be willing we should 
together form one people^ one nation^ equally entitled to, and equally 
enjoying the advantages to be derived from, the government of our 
common country ; but it is not so. In his letter to lieutenant gov- 
ernor Barry, before mentioned, he affects to doubt (for if he really 
doubts he must be a blinder and more narrow-minded politician 
than any of his intelligent followers) — he, I say, affects to doubt 
whether it would be safe to admit federalists into the republican 



28 

*' camp !" that is, to admit to a participation of the public offices, 
the men whom he, before the representatives of the nation and a 
numerous assembly of citizens, pronounced, either honestly or de- 
ceitfully (he may choose which term he pleases) to be republicans! 
And he desires still to foster the spirit of party, by party names ; 
and, assigning to his own the name of whigs — originally in England 
designating the friends of liberty, in opposition to the partisans of 
the tyrannical race of the Stuarts, who were called tories — he would 
brand all federalists with the latter name, to induce a belief among 
i\ic \)Qo\)\e^ that federalists are enemies to liberty ! What federalist 
can feel a shadow of respect for such a man ? If they suppose him 
sincere in broaching such ideas, they must think lightly of his pre- 
tensions to wisdom as a statesman : if insincere, I need not say 
what sentiment they will feel and express. 

Wailings for the condition of the Catholics of Ireland, so long 
suffering under the Protestant oppression of the English government, 
have been heard throughout the United States. The Dissenters in 
England are also oppressed. Both pay tithes to support the eccle- 
siastics of the established church. But what is the real condition 
of Federalists in the United States? How does it differ from that 
of the Dissenters and Catholics in the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain ? Federalists have long been paying tithes to the established 
Political Clergy of the United States, who exclusively enjoy all the 
benefices. Surely there are many high-minded, libei-al men, 
among the reigning class, who must see this injustice, and be wil- 
ling to provide a remedy. One such man, elected the Executive 
Head of the Nation, and having in view only the " general wel- 
" fare," and not the continuance of himself in power by a re-election, 
might remove the existing evil, and " set the people to rights." For . 
the enjoyment of equal rights. Federal Emancipation is as necessary 
in the United States^ as Catholic Emancipation is in Ireland. 

In stating the preceding facts, and the reflections they suggested, 
in regard to Mr. Jefferson, I have written with the freedom which 
the occasion seemed to require, but without the consciousness of 
any personal animosity. Towards me his deportment has ever 
been marked with urbanity. It is in reference to his conduct and 
character as a public man, that he is presented as a just subject of 
reproach ; such as, on a further and full investigation, he will, in 
my apprehension, appear to the future impartial historian of our 
country. The sentiments exhibited in his letter to lieutenant 
governor Barry, at this period, I confess I could not have expected. 
That they have excited in me a degree of indignation, I cannot, 
nor do I desire to, conceal. 



29 



SECTION II. \ 

\ 

John Quincy Adams, and Mr. Jefferson's Embargo. 

The first eight letters in the " Correspondence" were inter- 
changed between Nov. 28, 1803, and March 15, 1804. After the 
lapse of four j^ears and a half, appears No. IX, dated Sept. 19, 
1808, from Cunningham; in which he mentions THE EMBARGO; 
and, after " lamenting that the bitterness of rebuke so often mani- 
" fested towards his son (John Quincy Adams) had been extended 
" to Mr. Adams himself,'' asks his opinion " on that public measure, 
"which had so agitated our country," and in producing which his 
son had acted so conspicuous a part. This unlucky question was 
the putting of a match to a mass of combustibles, which soon kind- 
led to a flame, and threatened to burn me up. 

John Q. Adams and myself were, in 1803, chosen by the legis- 
lature of Massachusetts to represent that state in the senate of the 
United States ; and we took our seats there in the session which 
commenced in October of that year. He was then a federalist, and 
for a good while acted in that character. Some cases, however, 
occurred, in which he displayed a zeal in coincidence with the 
views and wishes of the president, Mr. Jefferson. He particularly 
distinguished himself in the attempt to expel from the senate John 
Smith of Ohio, as one concerned in Aaron Burr's conspiracy, or pro- 
ject, whatever it was : for Burr and his accomplices were the 
marked objects of Mr. Jefferson's hatred and revenge. There 
w^ere passages in Mr. Adams's report in Smith's case, which out- 
raged, I believe, every distinguished lawyer in America. The 
process of law, with its '-pace of snail," was too slow for his ven- 
geance. But this by the by. It was the unfortunate question of 
the Embargo, which, in regard to myself, set the ink a-running 
through president Adams's pen ; and it continued running in the 
whole of his correspondence, not unmingled with gall. Of the Em- 
bargo, therefore, it is necessary to give an account. 

The emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, in the prosecution of his plan 
of universal dominion, having overturned the Prussian monarchy — 
and resting a little while in its capital, Berlin — on the 21 st of No- 
vember 1806, issued a decree, called the Berlin decree; whose 
object was, the destruction of the commerce of Great Britain, his 
persevering enemy, and the only country in Europe (the waters of 
the sea intervening) which his arms could not reach. The decree 
consisted of ten articles. By the first, ''The British Islands are 
" declared in a state of blockade." By the second, " All commerce 
" and correspondence with the British Islands are prohibited." 
And by the fifth, " All trade in English merchandise is forbidden j 



30 

" all merchandise belonging to England, or coming from its manu- 
" factories and colonies, is declared lawful prize."* 

Plain as was the intention of this decree, from the words of it, 
yet an interpretation, indicating an exception favourable to the 
neutral commerce of the United States, was given to it, by the 
French minister of marine — but unsanctioned by the emperor, or 
even by his minister for foreign affairs, to whose department (as the 
minister of marine avowed) the question more properly belonged. 
That interpretation, however, served to amuse our government — 
willing to be amused — even when not bearing on its face (to use the 
words of president Adams in another case) " the plausible appear- 
" ance of probability" of its giving the real meaning of the decree. 
At length the time arrived, when it suited the convenience of the 
emperor to carry his decree into rigorous execution. The com- 
merce of the United States with the British dominions was proba- 
bly at that time of as much importance to the former, as their com- 
merce with all the world besides ; and, as the benefits of a fair 
commerce are reciprocal, Great Britain shared with the United 
States the advantages of that intercourse; and so far the views of 
the imperial tyrant were obstructed. He had long shown himself 
indifferent to the interests of his own commercial subjects : the 
plunder of conquered nations supplied the place of that revenue 
which would accrue from foreign commerce. He, of course, 
would be perfectly regardless of the interests of the United States. 
So the Berlin decree went into full operation. The papers on the 
subject were transmitted to our government from Paris, by general 
Armstrong, our minister at the imperial court ; and were communi- 
cated by the president to congress, with the following message, 
recommending an 

EMBARGO. 

" To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. 

" The communications now made, shewin<^ the great and increasing- dan- 
g'ers with which our vessels, our seamen, and merchandise, are threatened on 
the high seas and elsewhere, from the bellig-erent powers of Europe, and it 
being- of the greatest importance to keep in safety these essential resources, I 
deem it my duty to recommend the subject to the consideration of congress, 
who will doubtless perceive all the advantages which may be expected from an 
inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States. 

" Their wisdom will also see the necessity of making- every preparation for 
whatever events may grow out of the present crisis. 

" / ask a return of the letters of Messrs. Armstrong and Champagny, which it 
would be improper to make public.''^ 

"Dec. 18, 1807. TH. JEFFERSON." 

The last paragraph of the message (in italics) is omitted in the 

- * The whole decree, and the documents communicated with it, by the Presi- 
dent, are in the volumes of State Papers, published by Wait and Sons. 



31 

copy in the state papers, as well as in the journal of the senate ; but 
is retained in the journal of the house of representatives. It was, 
on a formal motion in the senate, ordered not to be entered on their 
journal. I cannot assign, for I do not recollect, any reason for it. 
Possibly the mover felt some delicacy on the subject, after voting 
for the law recommended in the message ; seeing a part of the 
documents, on which it was avowedly founded., vvere withdrawn^ 
and so far the basis of his vote zoas taken array. 

No. 1. Was a proclamation, dated October 16, 1807, by the king 
of Great Britain, requiring his " natural born subjects, seafaring 
" men," serving in foreign vessels, to return home, according to their 
duty and allegiance, to defend their own country, then menaced and 
endangered, from the arms of France and of the nations subjected 
to her power, whom she honoured with the name of allies. Such 
proclamations are common among nations engaged in war ; and no 
well-informed man will, 1 presume, dispute their justness. And be- 
cause it was known that numbers of such seamen did continue to 
serve in foreign vessels, British naval officers were required to take 
and bring away all such persons who should be found serving in 
any foreign merchant vessel; but with a special injunction to offer 
no violence to such vessel, or to the remainder of the crew. 

No. 2. Was an extract of a letter, dated September 18, 1807, 
from the French grand judge, nunister of justice, to the imperial 
advocate general for the council of prizes. It was an answer to 
some questions which concerned the execution of the Berlin decree. 
"• 1st. May vessels of war, by virtue of the imperial decree of the 
" 21st of November last, seize, on board neutral vessels, either 
" English property, or even all merchandise proceeding from the 
" English manufactories or territory ?*' 

" Answer. His majesty has intimated, that as he did not think 
" proper to express any exception in his decree, there is no ground 
" for making any in its execution, in relation to any whomsoever." 
" 2. His majesty has postponed a decision on the questioi^, Whe- 
" ther armed French vessels ought to capture neutral vessels bound 
" to or from England, even when they have no English merchandise 
" on board." (Signed) " Regnier." 

Of these two papers no secret was made ; and for a plain reason ; 
the British proclamation had many daj^s before been published in 
the newspapers. The copy laid by Mr. Jefferson before the senate 
had been cut out of a newspaper — a form not the naost respectful, 
of a document laid before the legislature of the United States, by 
their president. In like manner, the substance., if not the words, of 
the grand judge Regnier's letter had been published. But these 
two papers had excited little, if any, concern among those most in- 
terested — our merchants and seafaring people: they saw, in the 
proclamation, not an increased., but a diminished danger of impress- 
ments ; and French cruisers on the seas Avere then few in number. 



3^ 

The third paper was a letter, dated September 24, 1 807, from 
general Armstrong to the French minister for foreign affairs, Cham- 
pagnj ; asking him, whether the report he had just heard was true — 
" that a new and extended construction, highly injurious to thecom- 
" merce of the United States, was about to be given to the Imperial 
"decree of the 21st of November 1806" (the Berlin decree.) 

The fourth document was Champagny's answer to Armstrong, 
bearing date October 7, 1307, and which, with a little diflerence in 
the phraseology, is the same with that of the grand judge, Rcgnier, 
before mentioned, to the imperial advocate general ; from whom, 
indeed, Champagny says he received the explanation. These are 
his v/ords : " His majest}^ has considered every neutral vessel, go- 
" ing from English porls, with cargoes of English merchandise, or 
" of English origin, as lawfully seized by French armed vessels." 

Here an obvious question presents itself. Seeing Armstrong's 
letter simply asks the question, whether his information about the 
Berlin decree was correct — and Champagny's answer tells him that 
it was — why did Mr. Jefferson ask a return of these two ]:)apers, 
saying, "it would be improper to make them public?" The solu- 
tion may be found in the last paragraph of Champagny's letter, in 
which he says, " The decree of blockade has now been issued 
" eleven months. The principal powers of Europe, [meaning Hol- 
" land, Spain, and the other powers which the arms of France had 
" subjected to her control] far from protesting against its provisions, 
" have adopted them. They have perceived that its execution must 
" be COMPLETE to render it more effectual.'''' The commerce of the 
United States surpassed that of all the other neutral nations ; and with 
the British dominions was very extensive, and of vast importance 
to both. To render the blockade of the British Islands " complete," 
the commerce of neutrals with them inust cease. This object, in 
respect to the United States, could be accomplished only by an 
Embargo. In four days after the arrival at Washington of Arm- 
strong's despatches by the Revenge, containing the letters of the 
grand judge and Bonaparte's minister Champagny, Mr. Jefferson 
recommended his Unlimited Embargo.* One more fact: — On the 

* The following extract, recently found anion^ my papers, of a letter, dated 
January '2, 1808 (eleven days after the emhargo law had passed) from a respecta- 
ble gentleman in New-York to his father, a member of congress at Washing-ton, 
merits attention. 

" It is said, an4 from correct sources, that Mr. Armstrong gave notice, in Am- 
" sterdam, that a general embargo would take place in the United States imme- 
" diately on the arrival of the Revenge ; and that, in one day, sugar rose from 13 
"to 19 dollars, and coffee from 21 to 27 stivers, in consequence of that informa- 
"tion." 

The Pievenge arrived at New-York. The bearer of the despatches was Dr. Bul- 
lus, surgeon to the marine corps. New-York papers announced her arrival, and, 
among other articles of news, stated this — that the French Emperor said there 
should be no neiUrats. I did not doubt the truth of the report ; but, not having the 
evidence of the fact, in my first letter to Gov. Sullivan, Feb. 16, 1808, on the em- 
bargo, I merely asked the question, " Has the French emperor declared that he 
" will have uo neutrals ?" J. Q. Adams, in his letter to Mr. Otis, dated the follow- 



33 

8th of February, 1 808, (less than two months after the passing of 
the embargo law) the secretary of state, Mr. Madison, in his letter 
to general Armstrong, on this subject, says, " The conduct of the 
'^ French government, in giving this extended operation to its de- 
" cree, and indeed in issuing one with such an apparent or doubtful 
" import against the rights of the sea, is the more extraordinary, 
" inasmuch as the inability to enforce it on that element, exhibited 

" the measure in the light of an empty menace."* So then, Mr. 

Jefferson's embargo, which prostrated our immense commerce, 
which ruined many, and seriously injured all, of our citizens, was 
founded on an empty menace ! I now leave every intelligent reader 
to judge, whether the real object of the embargo was, '•' to keep in 
" safety our vessels and merchandise," — or, to render the French 
emperor's decree of blockade of the British Islands " complete." 
To him, it is certain, the embargo was acceptable; he passed a de- 
cree to enforce its execution. And at a subsequent period (August 
5, 1810) his minister informed general Armstrong, that " the empe- 
" ror applauded the embargo." 

Such were the grounds, or pretexts, for the embargo. The pre- 
sident's message, and the four papers accompanying it, were refer- 
red to a committee, of whom John Q. Adams was one. In a short 
time thoy reported a bill for laying an embargo. It was read once. 
A motion made to read it, immediately, a second time, was objected 
to ; it was repugnant to a standing rule of the senate, wisely form- 
ed, to prevent hasty decisions. To remove this difficulty, the 
senate, on a motion for the purpose, " i2eso/-jec/. That so much of 
"the 12th rule for doing business in the senate, as requires that 
" three readings shall be on three different days, unless the senate 
" unanimously direct otherwise, be suspended for three days." The 
bill was then read a second time, as in committee of the whole, and 
reported to the house without amendment. Then the bill (having 
been quickly enojrossed) was read a third time, and passed — yeas 
22, nays 6. Those who voted in the negative were 
Messrs. Crawford, Maclay, 

Goodrich, Pickering, 

Hillhousc, White. 

The time occupied in this business, from the reception of the pre- 
sident's message, to the passing of the bill, was about four hours. 
It was Friday. A motion was made to postpone the further con- 
sideration of the bill until the next Monday : it passed in the nega- 
tive. On motion of Mr. Crawford, that the bill be postponed till 
the next day, it passed in the negative, yeas 12, nays 16. Mr. 

ing- 31st of March, roundly affirmed, that "The French emperor had 710/ declared 
"that he would have no neutrals." Yet it afterwards appeared that gen. Arm- 
strong: officially communicated the emperor''s declaration, " That the Americans 
" should be compelled to take the positive character of either allies or enemies ;" 
that is, they should not be neutrals. 

* State Papers, vol. 1808—9, page 232. 
6 



34 

Adams was among the nays. No member of the senate displayed 
equal zeal for the passing of the bill. In opposing a postponement, 
to obtain further information, and to consider a measure of such 
moment, of such universal concern, Mr. Adams made this memora- 
ble declaration: " The president has recommended the measure on 
" his high responsibility : / xvould not consider — / would not delibe- 
'•'rale: I would act. Doubtless the Fresibent possesses such further 
'■'■information as will justify the measure P'' This sentiment was so 
extraordinary, that 1 instantly wrote it down. It shocked even Mr. 
Jeft'erson's devoted partisans. " However I may vote, (a member 
" was heard to remark) that is too much for me to say" For my 
own part, I originally viewed, and I still view, the sentiment as so 
abhorrent to the principles of a free government, so derogatory to 
the character of a member of congress, such a dereliction of duty, 
and so disgraceful to a man of sense, that I am incapable of con- 
ceiving of any counterbalance in official honours and emoluments. 
An embassy, a judgeship, or the presidency, to an honourable and 
independent mind, would, in comparison, be " as a drop in the 
" bucket — and the small dust of the balance." Upon the principle 
advanced by J. Q. Adams, what becomes of the " checks and bal- 
" ances," which are the pillars of his father's "Great Work" (as it 
has been called) on the American Constitutions of Government ? 
By the constitution of the United States, the senate and house of 
representatives Avere intended as checks on the acts of each other, 
and both as checks on those of the president. The sentiment ex- 
pressed by Mr. Adams resolves the whole business of legislation 
into the will of the executive. 

The bill, passed by the senate, was immediately sent to the 
house of representatives. There it was long and earnestly contest- 
ed ; and did not pass until Tuesday, the 22d of December. On 
the same day it received the president's approbation, and became 
a law. 

In the year 1807, the registered tonnage of the United States, 
employed in foreign trade, amounted to 848,306 tons. Of this, 
Massachusetts owned 310,309 tons, almost equal to the united ton- 
nage of the three states of New York, Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land, which amounted only to 322,836 tons. That vast quantity 
of shipping belonging to Massachusetts, giving employment to ma- 
ny thousands of her citizens on the water and on the land, was to 
be laid waste by the embargo, unlimited in its duration, and con- 
templated, I have not a shadow of doubt, by its author, to endure 
as long as the war between France and Great Britain should con- 
tinue. 

Seeing then, as every impartial reader will now see and acknow- 
ledge, that the reasons, presented to congress for imposing the em- 
bargo, were but shallow pretences, and, as resting on the Berlin de- 
cree, amounted, according to Mr. Madison, only to " an empty me- 
" nace ;" and as, according to J. Q. Adams, as will presently be 



35 

shown, the four papers laid before congress, containing Mr. Jeffer- 
son's reasons for recommending an embargo, were but four 
" naughts ;" and viewing with horror and indignation its destructive 
effects ; I thought it to be my duty to give to the greatest navigat- 
ing state in the union, which I in part represented, such information 
concerning it as was in my power ; that the state might take such 
measures to obtain a removal of the evil as her wisdom should di- 
rect. For this purpose, I wrote a long letter to Mr. Sullivan, gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, to be laid before the legislature, then in 
session ; and through that channel to pass to all my fellow-citizens. 
But, from a knowledge of his party politics, apprehensive that my 
object H-ould not be obtained through him, I sent a copy to my ex- 
ceilent friend, the lately deceased George Cabot — a man of so en- 
lightened a mind, of such wisdom, virtue and piety, that one must 
travel far, very far, to find his equal. After waiting a few days, 
finding that the original was not communicated to the legislature, 
Mr. Cabot sent the copy to a printer. It first appeared in a small 
pamphlet ; and, being republished in pamphlets and newspapers, 
was soon spread over the United States. In this letter I neither 
named nor alluded to my colleague, J. Q. Adams. 

The governor refused to communicate my letter to the legisla- 
ture. He sent it back to me, in a letter of rebuke, for my expect- 
ing him to make such a communication. In my reply, justifying 
the step I had taken, I said, " I confess there seemed to be a pecu- 
" liar fitness in a senators addressing the legislature from whom he 
" immediately derives his appointment. And in the present case, 
"seeing my letter embraced the highest concerns of our country, in 
" which Massachusetts holds so large a stake, especially in a com- 
" mercial point of view, I could not imagine that I was offending 
" her chief magistrate, in presenting a view of those concerns to 
"/iwi to be afterwards laid before the legislature.'^ This reply was 
dated the 9th of March. On the 18th the governor wrote me a 
long, but not very courteous, letter. My answer, not destitute of 
reciprocity, was still longer ; and, in the estimation of my friends 
in Boston, who caused it to be printed, was, in all respects, a com- 
plete vindication. The last paragraph in the governors letter con- 
tained these words: " Mr. Adams, your colleague, is quite opposed 
" to you in his opinion of the embargo. He voted for it, and still 
" considers it as a wise measure, and as a necessary one. I have 
" his letters before me upon it."" In answer to this, I say, '" True — 
" he did vote for the embargo ; and I must now tell j'our excellency 
" how he advocated that measure. It is not willingly, sir, that I 
" speak of him in an address to the public. Though often opposed 
" in opinion on national measures, there has never existed for a 
" moment any personal difference between us. But as you have 
" now contrasted his opinion with mine, to invalidate my public 
" statements, you compel rae to relate the fact," 



36 

" In my first letter I informed your excellency of the haste with 
" which the embargo bill was passed in the senate. I also inform- 
" ed you that a ' little more time was repeatedly asked, to obtain 
'•'■further information^ and to consider a measure of such moment, 
'' of such universal concern ; but that those requests were denied ;' 
" and I must now add, by no one more zealously than by Mr. 
"Adams, my colleague. Hear his words. But even your excel- 
"lency's strong faith in the president's supreme wisdom may 
" pause, while independent men will be shocked, at the answer of my 
" colleague to those requests. ' The president (said he) has recom- 
" mended the measure on his high responsibility : 1 would not con- 
^^ sider — I would not deliberate: i would ac/. Doubtless the President 
"possesses such further information as will justify the measure!' — 
" Need I give to your excellency any other proof (though other proof 
" abounds) of ' blind confidence in our rulers?' Need 1 give further 
" evidence of ' the dangerous extent of executive influence?' When 
" the people of Massachusetts see a man, of Mr. Adams's acknow- 
" ledged abilities and learning, advancing such sentiments ; when 
" they see a man, of his knowledge of the nature of all governments, 
" and of his intimate acquaintance with our own free republican 
"government, and of the rights and duties of the legislature; es- 
" pecially of their right and duty to consider^ to deliberate, and, ac- 
" cording to their ozon judgment, independently of executive plea- 
" sure, to decide on every public measure ; when, 1 say, the people of 
" Massachusetts see this, will they wonder if a majority in congress 
" should be overwhelmed by the authority of executive rccommenda- 
" tions ? And had I not reason to be alarmed ' at the dangerous 
" extent of executive influence,' which to me appeared to be lead- 
" ing the public mind, by its blind confidence, to public ruin ?" 

The reader has now the whole of what was written and published 
concerning J. Q. Adams, in my correspondence with governor Sul- 
livan ; and it is to this that president Adams refers, when, after a 
page of virulent abuse, he says, " He [Pickering] broke out at last 
" in a rage, and threw a firebrand into our Massachusetts legislature 
" against his colleague. The stubble was dry, and the flame easily 
"took hold."* Mr. Adams, accustomed to let loose his violent 
passions, mistakes the rage burning in his own breast, for a flame 
which he fancies that he sees lighted up in the bosom of the person 
he is intemperately reviling. 

In a preceding letter (XIV) dated Nov. 7, 1808, Mr. Adams has 
been pleased to describe me in the following words: "The gentle- 
" man has wreaked his revenge on my son, in letters which shew 
" the character of the man bitter and malignant, ignorant and iesu- 
" itical. His revenge has been sweet, and he has rolled it as a 
*' delicious morsel under his tongue." To this reproach I disdain 
to offer a contradiction. If the reader can find any ground for it, 

* Letter XVII. to CunniDarham. 



37 

in the foregoing extracts from my last letter to governor Sullivan 
(for, as I have said already, it was in that letter only that I named 
or alluded to his son) then let the reproach fasten upon me. 

Here is the source of the father's wrath. In my correspondence 
with governor Sullivan, I was constrained to state, in the manner 
before mentioned, a fact which occurred in the senate of the United 
States, in order to justify my own vote against the embargo, con- 
trary to the vote of my colleague, J. Q. Adams, on the same ques- 
tion. Of the character of that fact, every reader will judge. I have 
given my own sense of it. If the fact was honourable to his son, 
why should the father's wrath be kindled against me for stating it ? 
That it has been kindled, and into a flame, his whole correspon- 
dence with Cunningham aflbrds demonstrative proof. What is the 
obvious inference? That, in his opinion, the fact recited was dis- 
honourable to his son. 

In his letter to Mr. Otis, Mr. J. Q. Adams intimates a reproach 
to me for spending my time, w-hen a senator, in writing the letter to 
governor Sullivan ; while he was assiduously devoted to his sena- 
torial duties. But where was his regard to his duty as a legislator 
for the Union, in advocating and voting for a law which paralysed 
all the business of the nation ; when, by his own admission, it had 
only four ciphers for its basis? Where was his attention to the 
rights and interests of his constituents of Massachusetts, when his 
utmost exertions were made to impose that law upon them ? a law 
deceptively called an Embargo ; which is a measure sometimes 
adopted for an important national object, of a temporary nature: 
but the law in question was without limitation. The law was 
general in its terms, interdicting our commerce w ith all nations : it 
W'Ould not have been convenient to discriminate: but, accurately 
speaking, its title should have been — an act ' to prohibit all commerce 
with Great Britain and her dominions.' Whether J. Q. Adams 
really performed his duty in thus advocating and voting for the em- 
bargo — or abandoned it ; whether he guarded the interests of his 
constituents of Massachusetts, or betrayed them, the reader can now 
form a pretty correct opinion : but if he will accompany me as I 
proceed, he will see the latter completely established. 

I proceed with the embargo ; though I fear the reader will be as 
weary of the details concerning it, as the people of the United 
States were of the embargo itself, when they threw the intolerable load 
from their shoulders. I pray for the reader's patience a little 
longer. 

My first letter to governor Sullivan, giving an account of the em- 
bargo — exposing it stripped of the disguise which concealed its de- 
formity — was opening the eyes of the people, to see the delusion 
practised upon them. The administration stood in need of justifi- 
cation ; and J. Q. Adams stepped forth as its champion. The zeal 
of new converts is proverbial. The justification was in the form of a 
letter, addressed, nominally, to Harrison Gray Otis. In this letter. 



38 

Mr. Adams took new ground on which to rest the embargo ; the 
British orders in council, of the 11th of November 1807 — issued to 
retaliate the French emperor's Berlin decree. As the latter inter- 
dicted the commerce of neutral nations with the British Islands — 
which in its execution was extended to all the British dominions — 
its object, as already observed, being to ruin the commerce of 
Britain, as an essential source of that revenue which enabled her 
to contend successfully with France; so the orders in council inter- 
dicted the commerce of neutrals with France and her allies and 
their dependencies, and with all other countries, under the control 
of France, whose ports were shut against British commerce ; with 
the exception, however, of a direct trade between neutral nations 
and the colonies of the enemies of Great Britain. Mr. Adams de- 
scribes these orders as " studiously concealed until the moment 
"when they burst upon our heads.'"' Whereas our government was 
apprised, by the British secretary of state (lord Howick) soon after 
the Berlin decree was issued, that measures of retaliation would be 
necessary on the part of Great Britain. The first was a prohibi- 
tion of the coasting trade carried on by neutral vessels, from one 
port to another of France and her allies ; and notice thereof was 
immediately given to our minister in London. This was on the 
10th of January 1807. But the French emperor continuing his 
Berlin decree, and in September, in that year, directing its execu- 
tion, without any exception of the nations affected by it, the British 
government, having waited almost a year, and no neutral nation 
having offered any efficient interposition to obtain a repeal of the 
Berlin decree, made and proclaimed the retaliating orders in coun- 
cil of November 11th, 1807. 

Perhaps it may be asked, How could any of the nations then neu- 
tral, the United States for instance, the principal neutral power, in- 
terpose, with effect^ to obtain a revocation of the Berlin decree ? 
The answer is obvious. That decree was such a monstrous stride 
in imperial tyranny, so atrocious a violation of our treaty with 
France (a treaty made with Bonaparte himself when first consul) 
such an outrage on the law of nations, that all commerce with that 
country, and with her allies and dependencies, might have been pro- 
hibited, and the prohibition effectually enforced ; while our com- 
merce would have been protected against the small naval pow- 
er of France. The American navy, with the requisite increase 
then in our power, would soon have been completely competent to 
that object : not Mr. Jefferson's contemptible gun-boat system ; the 
expenditures on which were enough to have built a squadron of 
frigates. And had he possessed any portion of the spirit manifested 
by president Adams and the congress of 1798, such a resistance 
would have been made.* But nothing was more remote from Mr. 
Jefferson's policy than such resistance ; while it was the only mea- 

* To protect our commerce in 1798, all commerce with France and her domin- 
ions was prohibited. Our armed vessels were instructed to capture all French 



39 

sure which could have had a tendency to eflfect a revocation of the de- 
cree. Or, if the pride and obstinacy of the emperor should have 
caused him to persevere, at least our commerce would have been 
protected. Whereas the timid subserviency of our goverment natu- 
rally invited the emperor to persist in his scheme of universal 
plunder. And the delusive hopes which the actual conduct of our 
government excited among the people, enticed them to hazard their 
property on the seas, and even to enter the ports of France and her 
aUies ; thus rushing into the mouths of the sharks which the de- 
crees of Bonaparte had opened to devour them. 

The British orders in council, of which every body has heard, 
were not, like French decrees, put in instant execution, " without a 
" moment's warning :" they were not '' pounced" upon all neutral 
commerce. Time was allowed for neutrals to receive information 
of them, before their vessels would be subjected to their operation. 
These were the orders which J. Q. Adams has said " stood in front 
" of the real causes of the embargo." " To argue (said he) upon 
" the subject of our disputes with Great Britain, or upon the. motives 
'' of the embargo, and keep them out of sight, is like laying your finger 
" over the unit before a series of naughts, and then arithmetically 
" proving that they all amount to nothing." Now I will show that 
when the embargo was recommended, and when the bill passed in 
the senate, those orders in council were, in fact, out of sight of the 
president — out of sight of the secretary of state — out of sight of 
the senate — and out of sight of Mr. Adams himself. 

1. Mr. Jefferson, together with his message recommending an 
embargo, sent to congress the four papers I have already described ; 
saying, that those papers showed the great and increasing dangers to 
our vessels, our seamen and merchandise ; against which he ex- 
pected the wisdom of congress would provide. And, far from 
placing the orders in council in front of the causes for the embargo, 
there is not the slightest reason to believe that he thought of their 
existence. On the contrary, forty-six days afterwards, viz. in his 
message to congress, of February 2, 1808,* laying before them the 
orders in council, he says, '' I transmit them to congress as Si farther 
" proof of the increasing dangers to our navigation and commerce, 
" Avhich led to the provident measure of the act of the present ses- 
" sion, laying an embargo on our own vessels." 

2. Mr. Madison, in his letter of December 23, 1 8071 — the day 
after the embargo law was enacted — to William Finkney, our 
minister in London, says, " I enclose you a copy of a message from 
" the president to congress, and their act in pursuance of it, laying 
" an immediate embargo on our vessels and exports. The policy 

armed vessels. Our merchant vessels were permitted to arm in their own defence. 
Vigorous measures were adopted to increase our vessels of war. And all our trea- 
ties with France, grossly violated by her, were declared void. 

* State Papers, vol. 1806-8, p. 263. 

t State Papers, vol. 1808-9, p. 260. 



40 

" and the causes of the measure are explained in the message itself/' 
But Mr. Madison, like Mr. Adams, was afterwards willing to drag 
in the orders in council to bolster up that mischievous measure. 
Accordingly, in his next letter to Mr. Finkney, dated Feb. 19, 1808, 
Mr. Madison says, "My last, which was committed to the British 
" packet, enclosed a copy of the act of embargo, and explained 
" the policy of the measure;" leaving out " causes." More cautious, 
however, than Mr. Adams, or having a better memory^ he does not 
venture to assign the orders in council as a cause of the embargo ; 
much less to place them " '\n front of the real causes of the embar- 
" go ;" but contents himself with saying, that " among the consid- 
" eralions which enforced it, was the probability of such decrees as 
" were issued by the British government on the 1 1 th of November ; 
" the language of the British gazettes, with other indications, hav- 
" ing left little doubt that such were meditated." But these were 
after thoughts, the expression of which does no honour to Mr. Madi- 
son ; as they bear an insinuation that those rumours of British or- 
ders were among the motives which influenced the president to re- 
commend an embargo ; which he knew was not the case. 

3. I have said, that as to J. Q. Adams himself, the orders in 
council were out of sight, when he zealously advocated and voted 
for the embargo. This is a plain inference from the facts I have 
already stated. When hard pressed for adequate causes for the 
embargo, and not finding them in the four documents communicated 
with the message, Mr. Adams, it will be recollected, had recourse 
to the president's highly responsible recommendation of the measure, 
and the possible information locked up in his bosom, to justify the 
passage of the law. Now, if the orders in council furnished the 
great and prominent cause for the embargo, and if, compared with 
them, the four papers assigned by the president as the only causes 
for an embargo were but four " naughts ,-" is it possible that " those 
" all-devouring instruments of rapine," as Mr. Adams calls the or- 
ders in council, should never have risen in their terrific forms to 
his view? that he should not have so presented them to the view of 
the senate ? and that they should not have caused him to pour 
forth a deluge of his appalling metaphors, in describing them ? I 
hesitate not to pronounce it impossible. " Out of the abundance of 
the heart the mouth speaketh." Should he assert the contrary, no 
man of common understanding can believe him. At all events, it is 
clear, from the president's first message and documents, and from 
the quotations already made from his next message, and from Mr. 
Madison's letters, that neither Mr. Jefferson nor he had the orders 
in council in their minds, when assigning and mentioning the causes 
of the embargo. 

4. It is equally clear, that no other senator, in voting for the em- 
bargo, contemplated the orders in council, because no one adverted 
to them in the discussion. 

I now consider it as demonstrated, that Mr. Jefterson's embargo 



41 

was not recommended by him, " to keep in safety our vessels, our 
'" seamen and our merchandise." And as no man who thinks at 
all does any act of consequence without a motive, and as I am in- 
capable of discerning any other, I do not hesitate to say, that its 
object was a co-operation zvhh the French emperor^ to diminish, and 
as far as possible to destroy, the commerce of Great Britain ; and 
thereby compel her at least to make peace, if not absolutely to subject her 
to the controul of the imperial conqueror ; when it zvas apparent that 
the object of his ambition was universal empire. I add, that the mis- 
chievous measure 1 have been exposing was not an embargo, but an 
absolute prohibition of commerce, and therefore rt violation of the con- 
stitution : for the power given to congress to regulate, cannot be 
construed to authorize the annihilation of commerce : but such was 
the nature, and such would have been the etiect, of this perpetual 
law — perpetual in its terms — if the people of the United States had 
tamely continued to submit to it. But they would not submit ; 
and congress were obliged to repeal it. The commercial part of 
our nation considered the Berlin decree, and the still more out- 
rageous one issued at Milan, with the British orders in council, su- 
peradded, as less injurious than Mr. Jefferson's edict called an em- 
bargo : and all those decrees and orders continued in force when the 
£mbargo law was repealed. 

I have but one more fact to state on this subject : it is this — that 
on his first hearing the news of the embargo, president Adams ear- 
nestly condemned it. But he did not then know that his son had 
voted for it, and was its most strenuous advocate : that son, of whom 
he said, there was not an honester or abler man in the United 
States.* When afterwards he learned Avhat a conspicuous part his 
son had acted in favour of the embargo, he also thought it a wise 
measure. He even doubted whether it ought to have been limited ! 
He says, " The policy of a limitation to the embargo is, in a na- 
" tional view, and on a large scale, a nice question."! That a man 
of his strong understanding, extensive knowledge, and great expe- 
rience, wheii judging with an ^inbiassed m/>if/, should have condemned 
the embargo — especially an embargo of unlimited duration — was 
perfectly natural ; and, but for the agency of his son J. Q. Adams 

* Letter to Cunaingham, No. XLIII, dated July 31, 1809. J. Q. Adams was 
then on the point of departure from Boston, bound to 1-iussia, as minister plenipo- 
tentiary from the United States. " I hope," says the father, " his absence will not 
'• be long^. Jlrisiides is banished because he is too just. He will not leave an 
" HONESTER OR ABLER MAN BEHIND HIM." Here is a sing-ular confusion of ideas. 
To the inclement region of Siberia in Russia, her despots have been accustomed to 
banish offending subjects. Aristides the just was driven into banishment by the 
votes of his fickle fellow citizens. J. Q. Adams voluntarily accepted of the mission 
to Russia. It was his first reward for abandoning the cause of federalism, and his 
father's and his own original principles. He perceived " there was no <'etti)io- 
" along, or being any thing, without popularity ;'" and the path to popularity wa^ 
that opened by Mr. Jefferson — then the idol of the people : his measures must be 
supported. 

t J.,etter X, to Cunningham, p. 29. 

7 






42 

in imposing it, and his continuing joined to the dominant partj, he 
would never have ceased to condemn it. Then, too, I might have 
been exempted from his calumnies: for it was my involuntary ex- 
hibition of his son's conduct about the embargo, that kindled the 
father's wrath against me ; which, in the effervescence of his 
foaming passions, threw up that foul scum Avhich is spread over all 
his letters where my name is mentioned. 

The immense importance ascribed by Mr. Adams to his son, 
John Quincy, induces me to slate — that, having received a law 
education, he commenced the practice of it in Boston ; but soon (in 
1794) when his father was vice-president, he was appointed minis- 
ter resident of the United States to the States of Holland. His 
father places this lirst step in diplomacy to the account of Washing- 
ton's gratitude for the son's rescuing the government from the over- 
Avhelming flood of democratic fanaticism, raised in the preceding 
year by the influence or proceedings of Monsieur Genet, minister 
from the French republic. " John Quincy Adams's writings (says 
" his father) first turned this tide." — " Not all Washington's minis- 
'• ters, Hamilton and Pickering included, could have written those 
" papers, rvhich were so fatal to Genet. Washington saAV it, and felt 
" his obligations."* 

Mr. Adams's overweening opinion of his son's talents, and his 
raging enmity to others, makes him forget and confound times and 
facts. I had then nothing to do w^ith the cabinet. The general 
post-ofiice was my department. But Mr. Jefferson was at that time 
(1793) secretary of state ; and he has always been reputed to pos- 
sess certain talents, some knowledge of public law and of foreign 
affairs, and a familiar acquaintance with the rights and duties of 
ministers; having himself been minister from the United States to 
the court of France, from the year 1785 to 1789. And being 
secretary of state, it was his special duty to enter the lists with Mr. 
Genet; but he shrunk, it seems, from the fearful task. Alexander 
Hamilton, too, then secretary of the treasury, v^as believed to be 
a man of understanding, with a capacity to manifest its strength on 
paper. Even at the age of eighteen, he encountered successfully 
the most powerful tory advocates of British taxation. But what of 
all this? Mr. Adams represents Alexander Hamilton at one time 
as not possessing a particle of common sense ; at another, as an 
ignoramus; and that, in a certain conversation with him, "he 
" talked like a fool;" and at length sinks him even below Elbridge 
Gerry ! Yes — Elbridge Gerry was Alexander Hamilton's master ia 
finance !t 

In this state of terror and dismay, when all Washington's minis- 
ters trembled at the sight of the French Leviathan, forth stepped a 
youthful champion, son of the venerable sage of Quincy, and (like 

* Letter Xll, dated Oct. 15, 1808, to Cunningham. 

t See Mr. Adams's Letter, No. XIII, May 29, 1809, published in the Boa- 
ton Patriot ; aii extract from 'which -will he inserted in the section concerning 
Hamilton. 



43 

the stripling son of Jesse who slew the Philistine giant) " put a 
" hook in his nose." 

It will be impossible to doubt of the persuasive motives that in- 
fluenced John Q. Adams to desert the cause, policy and principles 
of federalists, and join himself to their adversaries. In addition to 
what I have already stated, look at the following facts. 

In a little more than a year after turning out as the champion for 
the embargo, to wit, on "the 4th of March 1809, Mr. Madison (it 
being the first day of his presidency) nominated J. Q. Adams 
minister plenipotentiary to the court of the emperor of Russia. 
The senate put their negative on the nomination. But Mr. Madi- 
son, having called a special meeting of congress in the following 
May, repeated the nomination ; and, by a change in some votes, 
the nomination was approved. Mr. Adams was next apponited 
minister plenipotentiary to the court of London; then one of the 
commissioners for negotiating a peace with Great Britain ; and, in 
the last place, secretary of state. There is but one more step in 
the ladder of ambition ; and there are not wanting partisans to aid 
him in the ascent — so far as perpetual eulogies can give him aid. 
His abilities and learning have been highly extolled. His father 
possessed the same qualifications. But something more is requisite 
in the character of a safe and useful president. Whose passions, 
of the two, are the most violent, it may be difficult to decide. Those 
of the son may, perhaps, be managed with the most discretion : 
from the father's errors he may have learned some degree of cau- 
tion. But his review of the works of Fisher Ames, one of the most 
able, excellent and amiable of men — and his last fourth of July 
oration — exhibit a temper which no candid, liberal and honourable 
mind would indulge. In both are manifested a rancour alike unbe- 
coming a gentleman, a statesman and a Christian. Of what value 
are professions^ without the spirit, of Christianity ? In vain will you 
search for this spirit in the conduct of cither father or son. In 
what part of the gospel did the latter find a wan-ant for him to 
throw the bolts of Heaven ? Where, to authorize him to interpret 
the events of Providence as the special judicial acts of the Deity 
applied to individual sufferers ? In his oration, he has the boldness 
to ascribe the insanity of George the Third to the judgment of 
Heaven : to consider his insanity — the most deplorable malady in- 
cident to suffering humanity ; an affliction, the bare idea of which 
would melt any but the most obdurate heart — as a punishment 
inflicted by God, for the evils e>;;perienccd by the colonies in his 
reign, from the oppressive acts of parliament, and the consequent 
American war. " Suppose ye that those Galileans (whose blood 
" Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices) were sinners above all 
" the Galileans, because they suffered such things ? I tell you, 
*' Nay :" — " Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, 
" and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men 
" that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay." These words have 



44 

an authority which J. Q. Adams will not controvert. His father, 
more placable, has expressed his belief, that George the Third " was 
"not a tyrant in disposition and in nature ;" but that he was "de- 
" ceived by his courtiers on both sides of the Atlantic ; and in his 
" official capacity only cruel." 

Had J. Q. Adams been a private citizen, the sentiments in his 
oration, here adverted to, would have been a subject of just re- 
proach : but, viewing him as the secretary of state — the officer of the 
government whose particular duty it was to hold a courteous and 
amicable intercourse with foreign nations with whom the United 
States were at peace — it was peculiarly indecorous thus to insult 
the memory of the deceased king. From his general reputation, if 
there was, at that period, a monarch in Europe, whose actions and 
whose life were regulated by moral principles, it was George the 
Third. Will it then be deemed a stretch of candour to suppose, 
that he verily thought himself bound by the duties of his station, 
as the head of the British empire, to preserve it entire ? 

On the score of talents and learning, the experience of five and 
thirty years, in the United States, has furnished ample proof, that 
a practical knowledge of the interests of the country^ and common sense 
deliberately exercised informing a sound judgment, united ivith perfect 
integrity and pure and disinterested patriotism, are of infinitely greater 
■value, than genius zcithout stability, profound learning, ripe scholarship, 
and philosophy ; — the latter often zvasting its energies in visionary theo' 
ries and political dreams. 



SECTION HI. 

The Causes, pretended and real, for removing T. Pickering from 
OFFICE — The Misssion to France in 1799 — The Pardon of Fries. 

Tt appears to have been a material object of Mr. Adams, in his 
correspondence with Cunningham, where he labours to justify his 
dismissing me from the office of secretary of state, to show that I 
did not possess the qualifications necessary to perform the duties 
of it. This reproach from him should have been spared, when he 
knew what 1 had written and published in Boston above five months 
before the date of his letter to Cunningham, No. Xll, the first in 
which he introduces my name. , Mr. Adams had certainly read 
that publication ; for it is the same in which I recited to governor 
Sullivan J. Q. Adams's extraordinary sentiment in the embargo 
question, which I have already stated. Mr. Cunningham (letter 
No. XI) asks the cause of my dismission ; which (says he) " I have 
" never seen unfolded, and which col. Pickering has nearly pro- 
" nounced inexplicable ;" referring to my last printed letter to 
governor Sullivan, which is dated April 22, 1808. The principal 



45 

object of that letter was, my vindication against many aspersions 
on my character. The urgent motives to undertake that vindica- 
tion are expressed in the following paragraph of the same letter: 

" I am now, sir, far advanced in life. I have children and grand- 
" children, who, when I am gone, may hear these slanders repeat- 
" ed, and not have the means of repelling them. I have, too, some 
" invaluable friends in most of the states, and many in that which 
*' gave me birth ; men who are the ornaments of society and of their 
" country. All these, if not my country itself, interested as it is in 
" the public concerns on which I first addressed yon [the embargo] 
" have claims which I ought not to leave unsatisfied. Thus called 
" upon to vindicate my character, I am constrained to give a con- 
'• cise narrative of my public life." 

I shall not trouble the reader with long details. It may suffice 
to say. That early in 1768, when a marked line was drawn between 
whigs and tories (the party names of that day) 1 acted with the 
former in all the measures of my countrymen, in opposition to Bri- 
tish taxation of the colonies — that in my native town I was a mem- 
ber of the various committees raised in that period, to support that 
opposition ; and that on me devolved all the writing which occa- 
sions called for : — That, prior to the war which ensued, I was elect- 
ed by the freeholders of my native county, Essex, register of deeds 
— that, after the commencement of hostilities, when Massachusetts 
organized a provisional government, I was appointed a judge of the 
county court of common pleas ; and sole judge of the maritime 
court, to take cognizance of prize causes, pursuant to the resolu- 
tions of congress, for the middle district of Massachusetts, compre- 
hending Boston, Marblehead, Salem, and other ports in Essex. 
Into these places were brought most of the prizes taken by the 
armed vessels of Massachusetts. The number of those prizes, 
while 1 held the office (which was until I joined the army under 
general Washington's immediate command) amounted to about one 
hundred and fifty. In the autumn of 1776, the army being greatly 
reduced, by the expiration of enlistments, and likely soon to be 
nearly dissolved, there was a call on Massachusetts for many thou- 
sands of her militia. I marched a regiment of seven hundred men 
from Essex. The tour of duty terminated in New-Jersey, in March 
1777. General Washington's head quarters were at Morristown. 
Some time after my return home, I received from the general an 
invitation to take the office of adjutant general. In that capacity, 
I joined the army at Middlebrook about the middle of the month of 
June. In September happened the batde of Brandywine. Five 
days afterwards another general action was expected ; but, rain 
coming on, the enemy halted ; and, after some skirmishes between 
the advanced parties, the American army retired. In October the 
battle of Germantown took place. After the capture of Burgoyne's 
army, general Washington, reinforced by some brigades from the 
northern army, took an advantageous position at Whitemarsh, four- 



46 

teen miles from Philadelphia. In the beginning of December, sir 
William Howe led his army from Philadelphia to Chesnut Hill, 
about three miles from the American army, and on the morning of 
the third day afterwards advanced, with his whole force, apparent- 
ly with the expectation, or hope, of drawing Washington from his 
advantageous position. I'he advanced parties, and Morgan's rifle 
re^^iment, engaged the British advanced parties. Washington re- 
taining his station on the hills, Howe returned to Philadelphia. 
The American army then marched to Valley Forge, on the western 
side of the river Schuylkill, and hutted for the winter. 

Some two or three months before, congress had constituted a 
board of war. 1 was appointed one of its members ; and took my 
seat there as soon as a successor in the office of adjutant general 
was appointed, being the last of January, 1778. Judge Peters was 
a member of the board, and we were joined by generals Gates and 
Mifllin : but these two left the board not long afterwards, and the 
business of it rested chiefly on Mr. Peters and myself. I continued 
in this station until the summer of 1780, when general Greene re- 
signed the office of quarter master general. Very unexpectedly, 
that office was proposed to me, and by Roger Sherman, then a 
member of congress ; a man whose name, in the annals ot his coun- 
try, will descend to posterity among the names of her eminent pat- 
riots and statesmen. Having taken a little time to consider the 
proposition, I informed him that I would accept the office, should it 
please congress to confer it. It was an arduous undertaking, and 
ihe more embarrassing because continental paper money was so de- 
preciated as to be hardly worth counting; and congress had no 
other funds. Having accepted the office, 1 addressed a letter to 
congress, proposing the expedient of authorizing me to value all 
services and supplies, in the department, as if to be paid for in 
specie, and to give certificates therefor, bearing an interest of six 
per cent. This measure was adopted; and with the aid of these 
certificates the business of the department, which under the new 
regulations extended to all the states, was carried on, until that 
eminent citizen, Robert Morris, appointed superintendent of finance, 
by his personal credit, furnished, in his own promissory notes 
(which foreign loans enabled him to redeem) a medium which pass- 
ed as cash. I continued in the office of quarter master general to 
the end of the war. 

In the year 1791, president Washington appointed me postmaster 
general. At the close of the year 1794, general Knox resigned the 
office of secretary of war, and Washington apjiointed me his succes- 
sor. In August, 1795, on the resignation of Edmund Randolph, 
secretary of state, Washington charged me with the business of that 
department. Some time before the meeting of congress, which was 
in December following, the president tendered to me the office of 
secretary of state : at the same time he frankly told me the names 
of three highly distinguished citizens, to whom he had offered, but 



47 

who declined accepting, the office. General Washington knew me 
well, and that 1 had not enough of vanity or ambition to be wound- 
ed or humbled at the preference given to those gentlemen ; they 
were entitled to it : I only regretted that they declined the office. 
For myself, I objected, that the duties of the department of state 
were foreign to my former pursuits in life, and that I thought my- 
self unequal to the proper discharge of them. He desired me to 
take the matter into consideration. When he again spoke to me 
on the subject, I observed, that although the gentlemen he had 
named to me had declined the office, yet by a little delay he mio-ht 
find some other candidate to fill it. The session of congress was ap- 
proaching; by inquiry among the members he might obtain infor- 
mation of a fit character not then occurring to him ; and I request- 
ed him to postpone the matter until the meeting of congress. The 
president acquiesced. But as soon as congress assembled — with- 
out speaking to me again — he nominated me to be secretary of 
state ; and the senate approved the nomination. 

Now all these important offices, in the general government, were 
voluntarily conferred upon me ; the last, and highest, attended by 
the singular circumstances I have just stated ; and all of them un- 
asked for, in any ibrm whatever. Yet Mr. Adams says, Pickering 
teas ambitious ! Had I solicited these offices — had I made an inter- 
est through my friends, or intrigued with my enemies^ to obtain them 
— had I swelled with vanity on their acquisition — I might have 
been pronounced ambitious. The following arc Mr. Adams's 
words : — *•' Under the simple appearance of a bald head and straight 
" hair, and under professions of profound republicanism, he con- 
*' ceals an ardent ambition, envious of every superior, and impatient 
" of obscurity I"* 

My "bald head and straight hair' are what nature has given 
me ; and I have been content Avith her arrangements : they are not 
a fit subject for reproach. Mr. Adams's friend Cunningham re- 
minds him, that it was rather unfortunate for him to attempt to de- 
grade Hamilton, by calling him " the little man ;" seeing, though 
with less flesh, he surpassed in stature both him and his son. Of 
all men living, those who best know me will say, that I am one of 
the last to whom a disposition in any maimer to disguise his senti- 
ments should be im/putcd. 

Having seen, throughout the " Correspondence," a series of mis- 
representations of comparatively recent events, it cannot surprise 
one that Mr. Adams should misstate an occurrence fifty or sixty 
years old. He says, that he was engaged in a cause in which my 
father was a witness : that " while under examination, though treat- 
" cd with the utmost respect and civility, he broke out, without the 
" smallest provocation, into a rude personal attack upon him," Mr. 
Adams. I know my father's character too well to give any credit 

* Letter XVII, p. 56. 



48 

to the latter part of this tale. He was a farmer ; yet, bred in the 
town, his manners were not coarse and rude. It is true that he 
thought all men were born free and equal ; and, though indisposed to 
any act of humiliation to a proud barrister, he would treat his poor 
neighbour with kindness and civility. The story admits of an easy 
solution. It was, I presume, a cross-examination ; and that my 
father's testimony bore hard upon the cause of Mr. Adams's client. 
Then, as it not unfrequently happens (and I have often thought 
with too much indulgence from the court) the lawyer brow-beat 
the witness, with the hope to confound him, in order, amidst his 
confusion, to produce some change in his language that might lessen 
or destroy the weight of his testimony. Such, probably, was Mr. 
Adams's conduct towards my father ; who had discernment enough 
to perceive the insult, and spirit enough not to let it pass unnoticed. 
In commenting upon the testimony, in his argument to the jury, Mr. 
Adams says he raised a general laugh at my father's expense. 
He supposes that I was present ; and says I " have never forgiven 
" him." Now, whether this miserable tale be true in whole, or in 
part, or wholly destitute of truth, it is, as to the conclusion, alto- 
gether immaterial ; for I never heard of it before, nor do I remem- 
ber a single instance in which my father was examined as a witness 
in any court. There was, consequently, no object on account of 
Avhich, in regard to Mr. Adams, 1 could impart or withhold forgive- 
ness. My father, at the age of 75. died almost six and forty years 
ago. 

I have mentioned one cause of Mr. Adams's virulent reproaches 
in giving an account of Mr. Jefterson's embargo. I shall now men- 
tion another. His friend Cunningham desires to be informed by 
Mr. Adams of the causes of his dismissing me from office.* He 
eagerly seized the occasion to vent his resentments, while he gra- 
tified the extreme curiosity of his friend. 

In his first answer,! Mr. Adams says, " Cffisars wife must not be 
" suspected, was all the reason he gave for repudiating her." [On 
this reason 1 make but a single remark — that the familiarity of this 
same delicate Caesar, with the other sex, was so notorious, that he was 
stigmatised as the husband of every woman in Rome.] ]\Ir. Adams 
proceeds — " Reasons of state are not always to be submitted to 
" newspaper discussions. It is sufficient for me to say, that I had 
" reasons enough, not only to satisfy me, but to make it my indis- 
" pensable duty : reasons which, upon the coolest deliberation, I 
" still approve. I was not so ignorant of Mr. Pickering, his family 
" relations, his political, military and local connexions, as not to be 
" well aware of the consequences to myself. I said at the time, to 
'■' a few confidential friends, that I signed my own dismission when 
" I signed his, and that he would rise again, but I should fall for- 
" ever." [This, I doubt not (the reader will pardon the apparent 

* Letter XI, dated Oct. 5, 1G08. t Letter XII, Oct. 15, 1808. 



49 

solecism) was a prediction after the event. Mr. Adams, when he wrote 
this letter, forgot the date of his prophecy.] " His removal was 
" one of the most dehberate, virtuous and disinterested actions of mv 
" life." "^ 

On this part of the answer, I must pray the reader to pause for 
a moment. That there were, in his own views, '• reasons of 
" state," 1 am ready to admit : what they were will by-and-by ap- 
pear. But his prediction, that for " one of the most deliberate, 
*' virtuous and disinterested actions of his life," " he should fall for- 
"ever," while /, the subject of that act, " should rise again," ap- 
pears, among intelligent and virtuous people, really enigmatical. 
Incapable, as he represents me, on what ground coufd Mr. Adams 
predict that I should rise again ? Never in my life did 1 court 
popularity, the usual road to honours and employments. Yet I 
have had many excellent friends, Avhose approbation has infinitely 
more than countervailed all the obloquy of which I have been the 
subject. 

Mr. Adams proceeds — " If any future historian should have ac- 
"cess to the letter books of the secretaries of state, and compare 
" Mr. Pickering's negociations with England, with those of Mr. 
" Marshall, he will see reasons enough for the exchange of minis- 
" ters." 

Be it so : but the actual comparison was out of the question 
when I was removed, my letters only being on the books ; and Mr. 
Adams saw very few of them; as he usually passed half the year, 
enjoying otium cum dignitate^ at Quincy ; and during the sessions of 
congress he never called for a letter book to read one of them. 
However, he might very well calculate on the superiority to which' 
he refers, as Mr. Marshall's distinguished talents were well known ; 
and perhaps no one entertains a higher opinion of them than I do. 
Since we were personally known to each other, I have been happy 
in receiving uniform testimonies of his friendship and esteem. His 
elevated and generous mind will derive no pleasure from this con- 
trast. 

Mr. Adams again. " In consequence of Mr. Pickering's removal, 
" I was enabled to negotiate and complete a peace with France, and 
" an amicable settlement with England." 

I do not know what settlement with England he refers to. The 
difficult question about impressment of seamen was not then adjust- 
ed; nor in the two next succeeding administrations ; though in the 
latter of them it was one of the professed objects of a three years' 
Avar, vastly expensive in money and in human lives : nor is it set- 
tled to this day. There was another subject of dispute Avith Eng- 
land — the debts incurred by Americans prior to the reA'olutionary 
Avar, and remaining due to British merchants. What negotiations, 
in this case, were carried on by Mr. Marshall and the British 
government, I do not know ; yet 1 am sure, that, on the part of Mr. 
Marshall, they mttst have been ably conducted : but, nevertheless, 

8 



50 

Ihey did not eftect an " amicable settlement," as Mr. Adams asserts, 
nor any settlement at all, unless it was, that the two parlies, unable 
to agree on terms, mutually consented to Id the matter rest ; for an 
actual settlement was not made until January 1802, near the close 
of the first year of Mr. Jefferson's presidency, by a convention 
negotiated in London, by Rufus King the American minister, and 
the British secretary of state. This was a compromise about the 
British debts. It was agreed, as I have already staled, that the 
United Stales should pay to his Britannic majesty six hundred 
thousand pounds sterling ($2,664,000) for the use oi his subjects,^ 
creditors to the American ante-revolulion debtors, in discharge of 
those creditors' claims. That he was enabled to make peace v/ith 
France, in consequence of my removal, is not true. The commission- 
ers, Ellsworth and Davie, furnished with full and minute instruc- 
tions, sailed for France six months before my removal; and my 
being in or out of office was a matter of perfect indifference in the 
negotiations, and in their result. 

Having so far gratified Cunningham's eager appetite for secret 
history, he takes care to keep up the excitement, by saying, near 
the close of this letter, " But I am not yet to reveal the whole mys- 
" tery." Accordingly, in the next letter, No. XIII, Cunningham 
renews his importunity " to be initiated into the whole mystery," 
relating to me. 

In his next letter (No. XIV) Mr. Adams adds to the former sub- 
jects, of negotiation, " discussions of great importance with Spain," 
as well as with France and England. On the discussions with 
Spain, I can speak with some certainty, having seen Mr. Marshall's 
letters to col. Humphreys, our minister at Madrid. They were 
few in number, and treated of the spoliations of our commerce, by 
the privateers of France and Spain. By both, the captured ves- 
sels were carried into the ports of Spain, and there generally con- 
demned, in violation of every law that is held in respect by civilized 
nations. The case was too plain to require the abilities of Mr. 
Marshall to discuss it. The chief clerk whom I left in the depart- 
ment of state, and whom Mr. Marshall retained, was quite compe- 
tent to that task. The Spanish government was at that lime but 
partially independent. French consuls in her ports erected them- 
selves into tribunals taking cognizance of prize causes. The cap- 
tures made by Spanish armed vessels, and unlawfully condemned 
in Spanish courts, were the subject of a treaty afterwards negotiat- 
ed by Mr. Jefferson's minister to Spain, Charles Pinckney ; in which 
the Spanish government stipulated to make compensation for all 
which, on due investigation, should be found in that predicament. 
But the senate, to whom this treaty was submitted, did not (under 
an influence easy to divine) advise its ratification. At the next 
session of congress, the same treaty was again submitted to the 
senate, who then advised its ratification. But it was too late; the 
Spanish government now refused to ratify. It was rejected by our 



51 

own government, in the first instance, because the illegal captures 
and condemnations, by French armed vessels, and the French con- 
sular tribunals, were not comprehended, and stipulated to be paid 
for by .Spain. She was in fact under duress from the French Repub- 
lic, under whose authority, or efficacious countenance, the French 
consular tribunals were erected. On these three subjects of nego- 
tiation, Mr. Adams says, " I could get nothing done as I would have 
" it. My new minister, Marshall, did all, to my entire satisfac- 
" tion." 

Mr. Adams was a lawyer, a statesman, a diplomatist, of great 
experience ; and from his abundant resources, ready at his call, it 
would not be unnatural, or unreasonable, to expect, that, having 
endured his lame secretary so long, he might be willing to lend him 
some aid — to suggest at least some leading ideas on the subjects in 
question : but of these he was certainly very sparing, if he offered 
any at all. As soon as a session of congress ended, he hurried 
away to Quincy, to indulge himself in repose, almost free from the 
cares of government, and enjoying his office, with its emoluments, 
nearly as a sinecure. At the close of the very important session in 
July 1798, he posted off without informing any head of department 
that he was going to leave the seat of government ! His son-in-law, 
Col. Smith, nominated for adjutant general, had recently been 
negatived by the senate ; and I supposed he departed in a pet. 
Much in this manner he left the city of Washington, early on the 
morning of the fourth of March 1801, the day of the inauguration 
of his successful rival, Thomas Jefferson ; vexed and mortified that 
he was not himself elected to the presidency a second time. 
Washington stayed in Philadelphia, and, with dignified courtesy, 
attended the inauguration of Mr. Adams; and afterwards made 
him a visit at his lodgings, before he departed for Mount Vernon. 

So much on the score of incapacity, with which I am roundly 
charged by Mr. Adams. With this, however, great as it may have 
been, it was somewhat cruel to upbraid me, after what had passed 
between president Washington and me, when he tendered me the 
office of secretary of state, as recited in my letter to governor Sul- 
livan ; which Mr. Adams had read, and which, as already mention- 
ed, caused the out-pouring of his wrath ; and after I had held the 
office a year and a half under Washington, and three years and two 
months under Adams himself. 

If the reader will have the goodness to accompany me, we will 
now look on the other side of the question. 

Mr. Adams having advanced far in gratifying Cunningham's in- 
quiry concerning my dismission, the itching curiosity of the latter 
prompts him to solicit further information. " I wish," says he, " my 
" suspicions were obviated or confirmed, that his (Pickering's) far- 
" famed report to congress, on our foreign relations, was not his own 
" unassisted performance." There were two reports relating to 
France. To the first Mr. Cunningham must refer. It was in the 



52 

form of a letter, of great length, dated the 16th of January 1797, 
addressed to general Pinckiiey, the American mmister at Paris; a 
copy of which, on the 19lh of that month, was communicated by 
Washington to congress ; by whose order it was printed. It made 
a pamphlet of a liundred pages. Mr. Adams had satisfactory 
reasons to know, that it was my own composition ; but he carefully 
avoided answering Cunningham's importunate desire of information 
on this point ; it would have presented a contradiction to his nu- 
merous vilifying reproaches. This report was the result of a tho- 
rough and laborious investigation, which enabled me to conclude 
with the following inferences : 

" From the foregoing statement we trust it will appear. That 
"there has been no attempt in the government of the United States 
" to violate our treaty, or weaken our engagements, wath France : 
" That whatever resistance it has opposed to the measures of her 
" agents, the maintenance of the laws and sovereignty of the United 
"States, and their neutral obligations, . rendered indispensable: 
" That it has never acquiesced in any acts violating our rights, or 
" interfering with the advantages stipulated to France ; but, on the 
" contrary, has opposed them by all the means in its power : That 
" it has withheld no succours fi'om France, that were compatible 
" with the duties of neutrality to grant : That, as well by their inde- 
" pendent political rights, as by the express provisions of the com- 
" mercial treaty with France, the United States were at full liberty 
" to enter into commercial treaties with any other nation, and con- 
" sequently with Great Britain : That no facts manifesting a par- 
" tiality to that country have been, and 1 add, that none such can 
" be, produced. 

" Of the propriety and justness of these conclusions, you will en- 
" deavour to satisfy the French government ; and, conscious of the 
" rectitude of our own proceedings, during the whole course of the 
" present war, we cannot but entertain the most sanguine expecta- 
" tions that they will be satisfied. We even hope that this has been 
" already accomplished, and that you will be saved from the pain 
" of renewing a discussion, which the government has entered upon 
" with regret. Your mission and instructions prove its solicitude to 
" have prevented its necessity, and the sincerity of its present hopes, 
" that your endeavours, agreeably to those instructions, ' to remove 
"jealousies, and obviate complaints, by showing that they were 
" groundless — to restore confidence, so unfortunately and injurious- 
"ly impaired — to explain the relative interests of both countries, 
" and the real sentiments of your own,' have been attended with 
" success. And, as a consequence thereof, we rely on the repeal 
" of the decrees and orders, which ex{)ose our commerce to indefi- 
" nite injuries, which militate with the obligations of treaties, and 
" our rights as a neutral nation." 

Of the nature and character of this letter to general Pinckney, I 
can desire no higher or better opinion than chief justice Marshall's. 



53 

In his Life of Washington, vol. v. p. 725, he gives the follov/ing 
account of it : 

" Early in the session (1797) the president communicated to con- 
" gress, in a special message, the complaints alleged by the repre- 
" sentative of the French republic against the government of the 
" United States. These complaints embracing most of the transac- 
"- tions of the legislative and executive departments in relation to 
" the belligerent powers, a particular and careful review of al- 
" most every act of the administration, which could affect those 
" powers, became indispensable. The principal object for the mis- 
" sion of general Pinckney to Paris having been to make to the ex- 
" ecutive directory those full and fair explanations of the principles 
" and conduct of the American government, which, by removing 
" such prejudices and jealousies as were founded on misconception, 
" might restore that harmony between the two republics which the 
" president had at all times anxiously sought to preserve, this re- 
" view was addressed to that minister. It presented a minute and 
" comprehensive detail of all the points of controversy which had 
" arisen between the two nations, and defended the measures which 
" had been adopted in America, with a clearness and a strength 
" of argument believed to be irresistible. To place the subject in 
" a point of view admitting of no possible misunderstanding, the 
" secretary of state had aimexed to his own full and demonstrative 
" reasoning, documents establishing the real fact in each particular 
" case, and the correspondence relating to it."' 

The other report I addressed to president Adams himself, on the 
18th of January 1799, to be communicated to congress. On the 
21st he made the communication, with the following message ad- 
dressed to the two houses : 

" According to an intimation in my message of Friday last, I 
" now lay before congress a report of the secretary of state, con- 
" taining his observations on some of the documents which attended 
" it." 

These documents consisted of a letter, dated June 25. 1790. from 
me to Mr. Gerry, then in Paris ; of a very long letter from him to 
me, dated Oct. 1, 1798, at Nantasket road, the lower harbour of 
Boston, where he had just arrived from France ; prepared, of 
course, on his voyage ; and studiously framed, to put the best face 
possible on his transactions with the French minister Talleyrand, 
after his colleagues, Pinckney and Marshall, had been obliged to 
leave Paris ; and of a mass of papers, numbered from one to thirty- 
five. To these I added two or three letters from Fulwar Skip- 
with, consul general of the United States at Paris, and some papers 
received by him from the French minister, after Mr. Gerry left 
that city. These were the documents referred to by Mr. Adams, 
in his message to congress, on which I made my report: which oc- 
cupies a pamphlet of 45 pages, published by order of the house of 
representatives. 



54 

To understand perfectly, and justly to estimate, the conduct of 
the United States government, in relation to France, during the ad- 
ministrations of presidents Washington and Adams, one must read 
the correspondences between the department of state and the 
French ministers to the United States, Genet, Fauchet, and Adet; 
and the letters and reports of the secretaries of state, on the sub- 
jects in controversy between the two republics. This, perhaps, 
will hardly be undertaken by any one, excepting the historian who 
shall minutely investigate the public transactions of that period. 
Chief justice Marshall, when writing the Life of Washington, read, 
as he once told me, the immense mass of letters and papers left by 
him, in relation to all his public transactions, during the long periods 
in which he was engaged in the service of his country ; and the 
reader has seen, in the extract from the Life of Washington, that 
all the acts of his administration, in relation to France, received, in 
the opinion of the chief justice, a complete vindication, in my letter 
of January 16th, 1797, to General Pinckney. My report to Mr. 
Adams, of January 18th, 1799, was intended, by an exhibition of 
the subsequent unjust, tyrannical and profligate conduct of the 
French government, to justify our own government in all its 
measures towards the French republic, whether in its attempts to 
conciliate by negotiation, or of armed defence against her wanton 
and outrageous hostilities. The examination of Mr. Gerry's budget 
of documents, which constituted the basis of that report, led me to 
remark, that the points, chiefly meriting attention, were the attempts 
of the French government, 

1. To exculpate itself from the charge of corruption, as having 
demanded a douceur of fifty thousand pounds sterling (222,000 dol- 
lars) for the pockets of the directors and ministers of the republic, 
as represented in the despatches of our envoys : 

2. To detach Mr. Gerry from his colleagues, and to inveigle 
him into a separate negotiation ; and 

3. Its design, if the negotiation failed, and a war should take 
place between the United States and France, to throw the blame of 
the rupture on the United States. 

The report does not admit of an abridgment. I can introduce 
only its concluding observations, the result of my examination. 
They are these: — "The French government, by always abstaining 
" from making specific demands of damages — by refusing to re- 
" ceive our ministers — by at length proposing to negotiate, in a 
" mode which it knew to be impracticable, with the person who had 
" no powers, and who therefore constantly refused to negotiate, and 
" thus wholly avoiding a negotiation — has kept open the field for 
'' complaints of wrongs and injuries, in order, by leaving them un- 
" defined, to furnish pretences for unlimited depredations. In this 
" way it ' determined to fecce us :' in this way it gratified its ava- 
" rice and revenge ; and it hoped also to satiate its ambition. After 
" a long series of insults unresented, and a patient endurance of in- 



55 

" juries aggravated in their nature and unexampled in their extent, 
" that government expected our final submission to its will. Our 
" resistance has excited its surprise, and as certainly increased its 
•' resentment. With some soothing expressions, is heard the voice 
" of wounded pride. Warmly expressing its desire of reconcilia- 
*' tion, it gives no evidence of its sincerity ; but proofs in abundance 
" demonstrate that it is not sincere. From standing erect, and in 
" that commanding attitude requiring implicit obedience — cowering, 
" it renounces some of its unfounded demands. But I hope w"e 
" shall remember, ' that the tiger crouches, before he leaps upon his 
" prey.' " 

Of the truth of this report — its conformity to facts — and the cor- 
rectness of the inferences— Mr. Adams must at that time have been 
satisfied ; or he would not have communicated it to congress. It 
is true he calls the report the observations of the secretary of state ; but 
they were the secretary's observations after passing Mr. Adams's 
examination and expurgation ; that is, after he had marked a num- 
ber of sentences to be struck out, because they bore somewhat 
hardly on the conduct of his friend and favourite minister, Mr. 
Gerry ; who, it must be confessed, appears as a principal actor, and 
the hero of the report. But, after this expurgation, all that re- 
mained must be considered as having his approbation. But it hap- 
pens to be in m}'^ power to present the reader with the opinion of a 
perfectly competent and impartial judge. In searching among my 
papers, I have found the following letter from general (now chief 
justice) Marshall to me, which I trust he will excuse my presenting 
to the public, seeing it is material to my vindication from Mr. 
Adams's aspersions on this particular subject. Readers will be 
pleased to recollect, that general Marshall, having been one of the 
envoys to the French republic, with Mr. Gerry, was perfectly ac- 
quainted with the characters of the directory and their minister 
Talleyrand ; and, comparing the management of this minister with 
Mr. Gerry with the occurrences under the direction of the same 
minister, during the six months that Marshall and Pinckncy had 
stayed in Paris, was perfectly competent to form a correct judgment. 

General Marshall's Letter to T. Pickering. 

" Richmond, Feb. 19, '99. 

" Dear Sir, — An occasional absence from Richmond suspended for some time 
my acknowledgment of the receipt of your very correct analysis and able com- 
mentar}' on the late negotiation with France. I wish it could be read more 
generally than I fear it will be. 

" 1 am grieved rather than surprised at Mr. Gerry's letter. To my compre- 
hension, the evidence, on which Lis judgment is formed, positively contradicts 
the opinion he has given us. From what facts he infers tlie pacific temper of 
the French government, I am unable to conjecture. That France is not de- 
sirous of immediate war with America, is obvious; that is, of reciprocal uar — 
for she has been long making it on us; but, that any indications appear of a 
disposition for a solid accommodation, on terms such as America can accede to, 
is by no means to be admitted. 



56 

** It is strange that Mr. Gerry should state the neg-otiation to have been in 
a fair train when intellig-ence of the publication of the despatches arrived in 
Paris ; while he represents Mr. Talleyrand as having- declined entering on the 
proposed treaty, until he could know the temper of our government on the 
communications that had been made, which communications related chiefly to 
money ; and while also he states Mr. Talleyrand to declare, that he had never 
approved of sending a minister to the United States. I am, &c. 

J. MARSHALL.'" 

Every reader acquainted with the character of general Marshall 
(and who in the United States, at all conversant in public affairs, is 
a stranger to it?) will be satisfied that my report, as communicated 
to congress by Mr. Adams himself, far from containing any thing 
exceptionable, merits approbation. Fortunately it is in my power 
to show, that the passages struck from the original draught are 
alike unexceptionable. These 1 have exhibited in the section on 
Elbridge Gerry, from a press copy found among my papers, with 
all the parts to be expunged, according to the president's direction, 
included between brackets. I am aware that these minute details 
may, at this day, excite little interest ; and I would not invite atten- 
tion to them, had they not been rendered important by Mr. Adams, 
in making my original report the basis of a malicious slander. 

Every American who lived in the days of the French republic, 
particularly in the years 1796, 7, 8 and 9, or who, by a little read- 
ing, has become acquainted with the transactions of that period, 
will remember the familiar use of the letters X, Y and Z, in rela- 
tion to those transactions. Those letters have often been repeated 
ludicrously, even as though they represented fictitious characters; 
whereas, in decyphering the Voluminous despatches of our envoys, 
Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry, I substituted, for a reason to be 
herein after mentioned, those letters for the names of persons intro- 
duced to our envoys in Paris ; whither they had been sent, and 
where they waited patiently for six months, for the purpose of ef- 
fecting an amicable settlement of all differences between the United 
States and the French Republic ; which differences, by the govern- 
ment of that republic, in the hands of a Five-Headed Executive, 
called the " Directory," were made the pretences for a scene of 
])iracics, in kind never surpassed, in extent never equalled, by the 
barbarous Mahometan regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. 
On the arrival of our envoys at Paris, " cards of hospitality" were 
sent to them, to entitle them to stay there unmolested by the po- 
lice. They delivered to Mr. Talleyrand,* minister for foreign af- 
fairs, copies of their letters of credence ; and rightfully expected 
to be soon presented to the Directory, by its minister. But the}'' 
were not presented — they were never admitted to the presence of 
that haughty and insolent executive. The arms of France had 

* This is the same extraordinary personage who, under the title of Prince Tal- 
leyrand, made an important figure for some years under the Emperor Bonaparte, 
and since in the court of Louis the Eighteenth. 



57 

subjected Holland, Spain, Portugal, and the minor powers conve- 
nientlj within their reach ; and even Austria was compelled to 
make peace. All the subject nations were treated with little cere- 
mony, and some with utter contempt; to which they submitted. 
The directory expected a like humble submission from the United 
States. In this they were encouraged by their knowledge of a 
powerful party, which from the beginning were opposed to the 
federal administration under Washington, and who persisted in their 
opposition during the continued federal administration of govern- 
ment under his successor Mr. Adams. Few, if any, important acts 
of the federal administrations, prior to the year 1799, escaped op- 
position from that party, of which Mr. Jefferson was the reputed, 
and undoubtedly the actual, head and oracle. This party vehe- 
mently opposed even the building of two or three frigates, which 
were necessary to protect our commerce from the Algerines ! those 
frigates which were the commencement of that navy, which, in the 
late war having saved the administration from political perdition, 
has now become a favourite with the government, as well as with 
the people. 

Instead of admitting our envoys to an audience with the directory, 
their minister, Mr. Talleyrand, employed certain agents to make 
overtures — to inform them of the temper of the directory towards 
the United States, as filled with resentment, on account of some ex- 
pressions in president Adams's speech to congress, in which he 
noticed the offensive discrimination made by the French govern- 
ment between the people of the United States and their government, 
in the last public audience given to Mr. Monroe, minister from the 
United States, on his taking leave of the directory, in the year 
179G. 

The parts of the president's speech, with which the directory af- 
fected to be offended, regarded chiefly the speech of the president 
of the directory to Mr. Monroe. Mr. Adams said (and most truly) 
that it was marked with indignities towards the government of the 
United States. " It evinced," said he, " a disposition to separate 
*' the people of the United States from their government ; to per- 
" suade them that they have different affections, principles and in- 
" tcrests from those of their fellow-citizens whom they themselves 
" had chosen to manage their common concerns ; and thus to pro- 
" duce divisions fatal to our peace." But not the government only 
was reproached ; the whole people of the United States were in- 
sulted in the speech to Mr. Monroe : " They," (said the president 
Barras) " always proud of their liberty, ivill never forget that they 
" owe it to France.'''' A generous friend, who had conferred the 
greatest benefit, even at the hazard of life, on another, would never 
boast of it ; much less would he tauntingly remind the latter of his 
obligations. 

I have suggested, that the resentment of the Directory against 

9 



58 

the American government was merely affected, for the purpose now 
to be explained. 

Had there existed in the directory a particle of honesty or hon- 
our, and had there been any solid grounds for complaint against 
the United States, our envoys would have been at once admitted to 
an audience ; commissioners would have been appointed to nego- 
tiate on all the topics of complaint; all differences would have been 
settled, and harmony and good will restored. But the French gov- 
ernment had no just ground for even one of their complaints. 
Such was the opinion of well informed men at the time ; and such, 
the reader has seen, was the deliberate opinion of the enlightened 
citizen, chief justice Marshall, formed several years afterwards, on 
an examination of all the public documents, aided by his own per- 
sonal knowledge, relating to the subject. 

Why then, was there such a loud and long continued clamour 
of the French government against the United States; especially 
against their government? I shall not attempt to enumerate all the 
causes. Those who conducted the affairs of France, doubtless, 
wished to involve the United States in the war commenced with 
England in 1793. But the president (Washington) after the most 
mature consultation with the members of the administration, con- 
sisting of Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox and Randolph, determined 
that it was the right, as well as the interest, of the United States, to 
remain at peace; and, in pursuance of this determination, he issued 
his proclamation of neutrality, and enjoined upon the citizens of the 
United States an observance of all the duties of neutrality. The 
exactness with which the executive endeavoured to secure and en- 
force their observance offended the government of France. 

Having a serious controversy with Great Britain on subjects 
arising out of the existing war, as well as claims of vast importance 
resulting from the treaty of peace of 1783, the government of the 
United States, instead of plunging the country into an expensive 
and bloody war, sought redress by an amicable negotiation. Suc- 
cess attended the pacific measure. By mutual stipulations, pro- 
vision was made for adjusting all the matters in dispute between 
the two nations, for which the mission was instituted. Of this treaty 
the French government loudly comjilained, and pretended that it 
contravened some of the articles of our commercial treaty with 
France. There was no foundation for this complaint; the treaty 
with Great Britain (well known by the name of Jay's treaty) con- 
taining an article, introduced by Mr. Jay, for the express purpose 
of securing to France and other nations, with whom we had engag- 
ed in treaties, the perfect enjoyment of every right and privilege 
to which those treaties entitled them. The real cause of French 
clamour about this treaty was, //mi it prevented a rvar hetzcecn the 
United States and her most hated enemy. Great Britain. The French 
government pretended, that some articles in the British treaty gave 
that nation advantages not secured to France by our commercial 



59 

treaty with her. To remove this ground of complaint, though un- 
der no obligation to do it, we oflered to change our stipulations 
with her which she said operated to her disadvantage — or to make 
an entire new treaty, to give to her every advantage which accrued 
to Great Britain by any article in Jay's treaty. But the French 
government evaded every offer we could make : it would not nego- 
tiate — it would not reeceive our envoys commissioned for the sole 
purpose of adjusting, by an amicable negotiation, every point in 
dispute between France and the United States. She had for two 
years been carrying on a piratical war against our commerce ; to 
which we had made no armed resistance, and which therefore she 
preferred to mutual peace ; presuming, that while so many nations, 
subdued by her arms, humbly submitted to their fate, the United 
States would be alike subservient. Threats, corresponding with these 
expectations, were thrown out, indirectly, to intimidate our envoys, to 
induce them to yield to her demands ; a compliance with which would 
have furnished to her enemy, Great Britain, a just cause of war. 
Those threats made no impression on our envoys. They persevered 
in their attempts to bring on a negotiation ; if with little hope of suc- 
cess, at least with the expectation of such a development of the 
character and views of the French government, as would satisfy 
the people of the United States, strongly prejudiced in favour of 
France, that no treaty with her, compatible with the interest, the 
honour and the independence of the United States, was practicable. 
This was sufficiently ascertained some time before Pinckney and 
Marshall quitted Paris ; and at an earlier day they would have 
sent their final letter to the French minister, but were delayed by 
Mr. Gerry ; on whom, in private conferences, Talleyrand had 
made impressions favourable to the designs of the Directory ; as 
will be more particularly related in another place. The directory 
and Talleyrand expected to engage him singly to enter on a nego- 
tiation, and to impose on him such terms of a treaty as would suit 
their own and the interests of France ; such unequal terms as they 
had been accustomed to impose on the vassal nations around them, 
and which, once stipulated by Mr. Gerry, and favoured by the 
whole party opposed to the federal administration, which was reli- 
ed upon as partial to France, they presumed the American govern- 
ment would not dare to reject. 

In the same letter. No. XI, dated Oct. 5, 1808, in which Cun- 
ningham desires Mr. Adams to inform him of the causes of my 
removal, he says, that when in Philadelphia, soon afterwards, he 
was told, that when another mission to the French Republic was 
concluded on [meaning that which was commenced by the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Murray] " my aversions to any farther negotiations with 
" France were so untameahle, and so indecorously expressed, as to 
" render me an unfit medium for the communications between the 
" two governments, and unsuitable to remain in a ministerial sta- 
"tion.''' In the answer of Mr. Adams (Letter No. XII, Oct. 15) 
he says, " The reason you heard in Philadelphia was quite suffi- 



60 

" cient, if there had been no other ; but there were many other 
" and much stronger reasons." All I need say on this reason is — 
that it is a nonentity. And if Mr. Adams, in cases where his resent- 
ments are operating, were capable of any just reflection, he would 
have been ashamed to have adopted it; for he continued me in 
office almost fifteen months after the institution of the mission 5 viz. 
from February 18, 1799, the day he nominated Mr. Murray, until 
the 12th of May, 1800, when he sent me my dismission. 

In his letter XVII, Mr. Adams mentions, as an evidence of my 
incompetency for the department of state, and consequently to jus- 
tify my removal, that when in the senate of the United States, I 
was almost always in a minority of two, three, four or five, in 34. 
This Mr. Adams has said, as he has said many other things, at 
random, without examination ; which shows how little his naked as- 
sertions are to be relied on. The number of federal senators was 
small ; and therefore, on questions in which the different principles or 
views of the two parties were affected, federal members would of 
course be in the minority. But I had the curiosity to look into the 
journal of the first session (1803 — 4) in which J. Q. Adams and I 
were in the senate ; and in making a list of the instances when the 
questions were decided by yeas and nays, I found that he was 
seven times in the majority and nineteen times in the minority ; 
while I was eight times only in the minority and twenty times in 
the majority ; and more than forty times we voted on the same side. 
I presume (for it is too trifling a matter to be critically examined) 
that we continued for the most part voting together, until Mr. 
Adams began to change his course, and finally joined the strongest 
side. But if a want of talents commensurate with the duties of the 
office of secretary of state rendered me unfit to retain it, why did 
he suffer me to hold it so long ? Did it require three years and 
two months for a person of his knowledge, discernment and expe- 
rience (which he certainly believed were not surpassed, if equalled, 
in any man in the United States) to make the discovery ? And if 
he had made it, even by the end of one year, where was his re- 
gard to his official duty, in letting the public interests suffer, above 
two years more, and at a most critical period, through my incom- 
petency ? 

In his letter No. XXVI (February 11, 1809) Mr. Adams is 
pleased to give me rank with three men whose names are familiarly 
known throughout the United States — Shays, who headed the dan- 
gerous insurrection in Massachusetts — Gallatin, a reputed leader in 
the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania — and Fries, the author of 
the second insurrection in the same state, in the time of Mr. 
Adams's presidency. These three instances of treason^ the highest 
crime which a citizen can commit, he lowers to a small offence — 
"a disturbance!" — But he had pardoned Fries ! (the mode and the 
apparent motive will be explained.) And what a cruel thing it would 
have been to have hung a poor man, only for disturbing the tran- 



61 

quillity of a state ! This same Fries, however, was convicted of 
treason^ before the court in which tliat very able and learned 
judge, Samuel Chase, presided — the judge whom Mr. Adams calls 
his friend, and on whom he has pronounced a lofty eulogy. Asso- 
ciating me with the three persons first above named, Mr. Adams 
asks — " And why may we not have a Pickering's disturbance ?" 
This idea of Mr. Adams's was suggested, perhaps, by some ex- 
pressions in his son's letter to Mr. Otis ; in v/hich he wished to 
have it believed that my opposition to Mr. Jefferson's embargo law, 
after it was passed — even so far as my letter to governor Sullivan 
was in opposition — was unwarrantable. From this wanton charge 
basely insinuated, my political enemies will not think any defence to 
be necessary. However, I will refer to my letter itself, to gover- 
nor Sullivan, on which the insinuation rests, for a vindication. I 
need recite only the last sentence of my letter on the embargo 
(for which I had shown there was no adequate cause) in which I 
say, " Regardless of personal consequences, I have undertaken to 
" communicate these details ; with the view to dissipate dangerous 
" illusions; to give to my constituents correct information; to excite 
"inquiry; and to rouse that vigilant jealousy which is character- 
" istic of REPUBLICANS, and essential to the preservation of their 
" rights, their liberties, and their independence." In another part 
of the same letter, I said, " Nothing but the sense of the commer- 
" cial states, clearly and emphatically expressed, will save them 
" from ruin." Of such sentiments I have no reason to be ashamed ; 
and to have expressed them in the most public manner, is not a 
subject of regret : they will receive the approbation of every in- 
dependent mind. But if high authority were necessary to justify 
them, I would cite that of the same eminent lawyer and upright 
judge, Samuel Chase : — " To oppose (says he) a depending measure, 
" by endeavouring to convince the public that it is improper, and 
" ought not to be adopted ; or to promote the repeal of a law already 
'^ past^ by endeavouring to convince the public that it ought to be repeal- 
" cd. and that such men ought to be elected to the legislature as will 
" repeal it ; to attempt, in fine, the correction of public measures, by 
" arguments tending to show their improper nature or destructive ten- 
'"'' dency, never has been or can be considered as sedition, in any 
" country where the principles of law and liberty are respected ; 
"but it is the proper and usual exercise of that right of opinion 
" and speech which constitutes the distinguishing feature of free 
" government."* 

In the same letter. No. XXVI, Mr. Adams says, " I have a few 
" sheets of paper written on a point on which I differed formerly and 
" latterly with our angry senator, and which was one of the causes of 
"/izs removal; which I will send you, provided you will previously 

* From the answer of Judg;e Chase, to the articles of impeachment against him 
in 1805. 



62 

" give me your honour that you will return it after you have read 
" it, without taking a copy." I can only conjecture what was the 
subject of these '' sheets of paper ;" — that it was the impressing of 
British seamen from neutral merchant vessels. In his letter No. 
XXXII, March 4, 1809, Mr. Adams encloses five sheets, "the 
'• rough draft," which Cunningham had promised to return. " I 
" shall burn it," says Mr. Adams, " because I have made another 
" copy more correct, in which I have left out the name, and much 
" of the trumpery." I now recollect reading, about that time, an 
anonymous publication on the subject of impressments, and that it 
was ascribed to president Adams as the writer. But I have no 
recollection of ever discussing Avith Mr. Adams the principle in- 
volved in the question of impressments ; and it is incredible that it 
should have been a cause of my removal. It is to be placed, with 
many other pretended causes, to after thoughts ; when, as in the 
case of instituting the mission to France, he was straining his wits 
to discover and disclose reasons, if they bore only " the plausible 
" appearance of probability" of satisfying public or individual 
inquirers. 

I believe I have now exhibited all the alleged causes of my re- 
moval from office — except the indefinite one, " Reasons of State," 
but which (see letter XII) Mr. Adams says, " are not always to be 
" submitted to ncAVspaper discussion." Of these I have promised to 
take some notice ; and here they are. After the perusal, readers 
will not wonder that Mr. Adams should be unwilling to subject 
them to newspaper discussion. An extract from general Hamilton's 
letter, published in 1800, "concerning the Public Conduct and 
" Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States," 
will be a proper introduction to the evidence in the case. Refer- 
ring to the removal of M'Henry and myself, Hamilton says, " It 
" happened at a peculiar juncture, immediately after the unfavoura- 
" ble turn" [unfavourable to Mr. Adams] " of the election in New- 
"York; and had much the air of an explosion of combustible 
" materials which had been long prepared, but which had been kept 
" down by prudential calculations respecting the effect of an ex- 
" plosion upon the friends of those ministers in the state of New- 
" York. Perhaps, when it was supposed that nothing could be lost 
" in this quarter, and that something might ])e gained elsewhere, 
" hy an alon'mg sacrifice of those ministers, especialh Mr. Pickering, 
" who had been for some time particularly odious to the opposition 
" party, it was determined to proceed to extremities." The reader 
will compare this with the following details. 

Hazen Kimball, a very worthy man, had been a clerk in my 
office. After quitting the office he settled in Savannah. In 1 803, 
being in Massachusetts, and calling to see me, he gave me informa- 
tion relative to my dismission, which I had not expected. Meeting 
him afterwards at Washington (where I was attending as a member 
of the senate) I desired him to commit that information to writing; 
which he did as in the following certificiate : 



63 

"At a public table, M'Laughlin's tavern, in Georgetown, July, 1800, I heard 
Elias B. Caldwell say, that some time in May preceding-, he was present in a 
public room at Annapolis, when Mr. Smith, the present secretary of the navy, 
made the following declaration: That we (meaning the democratic party) 
have been sent down (from Philadelphia) to know on what terms wc would 
support Mr. Adams at the next presidential election. In our answer, amono- 
other conditions, was the dismissal of colonel Pickering from the office of secre- 
tary of state : but he has delayed it till he lost all hopes of his election by the 
strength of his own party, and now we do not thank him for it. 

" I have shown this statement to Mr. Caldwell, who says, if it does not con- 
tain the precise words of Mr. Smith, that it is substantially correct. 

" Mr. Caldwell further says, that Mr. Smith said, in the same public manner, 
that he knew colonel Pickering would be dismissed some time before it took 
place. HAZEN KIMBALL." 

City of Washington, 29th Dec. 1803. 

Having learnt that Thomas C. Bowie, Esq. of Prince Geort^e's 
county, Maryland, (whom I did not personally know, but who was 
named to me as " a gentleman of high respectability, who had re- 
" tired from the bar") had had a very particular conversation with 
Robert Smith, on the subject stated in the above certificate, I took 
the liberty, in April, 1810, of addressing a letter to him, with a 
copy of the certificate. The following extracts from his answer 
are all that particularly apply to the case in question. 

Extracts of a letter, dated April 16, 1 810, /rom Thomas C. Boxsiie, Esq. 
to Tiinothy Pickering. 

" I assure you, sir, it will be a source of much gratification, if any thing in 
my power can contribute, in the smallest degree, to the exposure of those 
gross and palpable delusions which have been so long imposed upon the Ameri- 
can people, bj' the abetters of democracy, in regard to your public character." 
— [Then noticing my official publications relative to our rulers, and their 
management of the aifairs of the United States, Mr. Bowie says,] " In order to 
impair the effect and universal conviction which they had begun to operate in 
almost every section of the country, it was soon found necessary to make you 
the incessant theme of the most bitter invective and vulgar abuse." — '' It is 
impossible for you, sir, to have any adequate idea of the verj^ ungenerous, and 
I may say wicked, expedients resorted to by the democrats in relation to this 
subject." 

" I certainly did hear Mr. Secretary Smith make the declaration contained 
in the certificate of Mr. Kimball. A iew days before the account of your 
dismissal arrived at Annapolis, I repaired thither, attending the general court, 
having just commenced the practice of the lav\r : and, having studied in Balti- 
more with judge Chase and Mr. Martin, I was well acquainted with Mr. Robert 
Smith, and the Baltimore Bar generally, with whom I messed in No. 2, at 
Wharfe's tavern, although then a resident of Prince George's county. One 
morning, while in bed, Mr. Smith remarked, that in a few days the federalists 
would receive from the seat uf government a piece of intelligence which 
would both surprise and alarm them. He would not impart what it was, but 
requested me to notice his prediction. When the mail brought the news of 
your dismissal, Mr. Smith told me it was that to which he alluded ; and he sup- 
posed I would admit he had some knowledge of cabinet secrets." — " I had un- 
derstood, a short time previous, that Mr. Adams was negotiating with the lead- 
ing republican members of the house of representatives, a coalition which 



64 

went to secure his twenty-five thousand dollars (a year) at the expense of what 
he himself had deemed the public good, but a little time before : that general 
Smith, and other leading democratic members, were, on the eve of Mr. Adams's 
expected re-election, frequently dining and visiting at his house, and who be- 
fore that time had never been in the habit of either." 

The fact, that I was to be removed, being known among the 
democrats, while federalists were ignorant of it, is an irrefragable 
evidence of the intrigue between Mr. Adams and the democrats, to 
which my removal is to be ascribed. 

The reader now sees, in the compass of two or three pages, the 
real cause of my removal by Mr. Adams ; " the reasons of state," 
not to be submitted to newspaper discussion. If this statement is 
sufficient to shock every honest and honourable man, what will be 
his feelings when he compares it with this solemn declaration of 
Mr. Adams, in his letter No. Xll, Oct. 15, 1808, when speaking of 
me ? " His removal was one of the most deliberate, virtuous and 
" disinterested actions of my life !" — And again, on the 25th of 
November following (letter No. XVII) he calls it " one of the most 
" virtuous actions of his life !" 

Mr. Kimball's certificate, and the extracts from Mr. Bowie's let- 
ter, with observations, I published thirteen years ago ; only in the 
certificate I then, of my own accord, left blanks where I have now 
introduced, as in the original, the name of Mr. Caldwell. He is 
the respectable citizen, Elias B. Caldwell, Esq. of the city of 
Washington, and clerk of the courts there. He also knows the 
excellent character sustained by Mr. Bowie. 

At the time of the former publication (March 1811) I made the 
following, among other, reflections on this transaction : — " When a 
" man has, at one period of his life, distinguished himself by his 
" public services, it is distressing to find and exhibit him, as capable 
" of straying from the straight path of integrity and truth ; for it 
" tends to excite suspicions and jealousies towards the most upright 
" and inflexibly just." 

In another part of this Review, I mention the efforts made by 
Mr. Adams to justify liis unadvised institution of a mission to the 
French republic, in February 1799, when he nominated Mr. Mur- 
ray sole commissioner to negotiate a treaty with its rulers — " men 
" so bold, so cunning and so false." But as that mission appears to 
have had an origin similar to that of my removal — if it was not a 
part, and indeed the important part, of the original intrigue — I 
shall here introduce what has come to my knowledge concerning it. 

In the year 1815, in conversing with some of my friends, of 
whom the late Thomas P. Grosvenor, a representative in congress 
from the state of New-York, was one, I said, that for a considera- 
ble time I had been endeavouring to make some discovery as to 
the origin of that mission ; and that I suspected it to be the same 
with that of my removal — an intrigue between Mr. Adams and the 



65 

opposUion, or democrats. Grosvenor instantly answered in these 
words : " Why that was the fact : John Nicholas told judge Van 
" Ness the whole story, and laughed at Mr. Adams's credulity." 

John Nicholas was a Virginian, and for several years a member 
of congress, in Washington's administration, and lirmly in opposi- 
tion. At length he removed to the state of New-York; where, as I 
have understood, he was appointed a judge of the court of the 
county in which he resided, and a senator for the district, in the 
senate of that state. Judge Van Ness was the late Willian P. Van 
Ness, of the supreme court of New- York. 

Here the matter rested for some years ; after which, being in 
company with a number of members of congress, and the conversa- 
tion turning on some past events, particularly the mission to France 
in 1799, in the midst of our successful naval hostihties with that 
]:)Ower — without the previous mention of it by the president to any 
head of a department, or to any federalist in or out of congress, as 
far as was then known — one of the gentlemen said, that when 
.John Dennis* returned from congress, after that session, he said in 
his hearing, and in the hearing of many others, that a committee of 
three waited on Mr. Adams, and told him, that if he would institute 
a mission to make peace with France, and dismiss the secretary of 
war, Mr. M'Henry, and of state, Mr. Pickering, they would not op- 
pose — or they would support — his re-election to the presidency. 
Immediately afterwards, I mentioned this information to another 
member, of my acquaintance: he coniirmed it as received by him 
from another source ; and named for his author the same gentle- 
man, a member of congress in 1799, who, the late Gouverneur 
Morris once told me, negotiated my removal. 

The veil Ijeing now taken off from the two acts of president 
Adams, of which no federalist could give a satisfactory solution, 
the embarrassments attending his laborious attempts to justify those 
acts, and his glaring inconsistencies, are easily accounted for^ The 
fruits of his toil on these subjects, as displayed in the letters pub- 
lished in 1809 in the Boston Patriot, and those written in 1808 and 
1809 to Cunningham, and lately published by Cunningham's son, 
would cover nearly a hundred printed pages in octavo; whereas, 
had they originated in considerations purely public, thehonest and 
satisfactory truth might have been expressed in a single page. 
Truth alone is clear and consistent. 

With respect to the French mission — at one time Mr. Adams 
says, the information derived from liis minister, Mr. Gerry, formed 
a full and complete basis on which to institute the misaion._ Yet, 
in December, 1 798, after he had been for above two months in pos- 
session of all that information, and of more, of one kind and another 
— in addressing congress, he said, " To send another niinisler, with- 
" out more determinate assurances that he would be received, 

* Mr. Dennis was a representative from the Eastern shore of Maryland, 

10 



66 

" would be an act of humiliation to which the United States ought 
'• not to submit:" and on the 12th of that month, in answer to an 
address from the senate, he said, '• I have seen no real evidence 
" of any change of system or disposition in the French republic 
" towards the United Stales." At other times, Talleyrand's letter 
to Pichon, who communicated it to Mr. Murray, furnished the as- 
surances he had required, of the due reception of an envoy. Mr. 
Adams's words are, " This letter was transmitted by Mr. Murray 
" to the American government, and I own I am not acquainted with 
" any words, either in the French or English language, which could 
" have expressed in a more solemn, a more explicit, or a more de- 
" cided manner, assurances of all that I had demanded as condi- 
" tions of negotiation."* Yet, when, ten years before, he nomi- 
nated Mr. Murray to the senate, and sent them a copy of Talley- 
rand's letter, he declares to that body (in order to conciliate and 
obtain their approbation) that Mr. Murray " shall not go to France 
" without direct and unequivocal assurances from the French govern- 
" ment, signified by their minister of foreign relations, that he shall 
" be received in character." 

I have said, that Mr. Gerry's long letter to me, dated October 1, 
1798, in the harbour of Boston, on the morning of his arrival, was 
written on his passage from France, and studiously prepared, to put 
the best face on his conduct while in Paris. In that letter he says, 
" Before the arrival of the despatches of the envoys, the minister 
" [Talleyrand] appeared to me sincere, and anxious to obtain a re- 
" conciliation." And again, " On the 28th of July 1 left Paris ; and 
" from the best information which I could obtain relative to the 
" disposition of the executive directory (for I never had any direct 
" communication with them) they were very desirous of a recon- 
" ciliation between the republics." All this is very courteous and 
charitable towards the French rulers and their minister Talleyrand, 
irom whom he had received, and with tame submission, the most 
pointed insults. But see his language eleven years afterwards, 
when his former communications were not recollected, or were for- 
gotten, a7ul zoheji he expressed his real sentiments — the same that re- 
mained stamped on his mind from the deep impressions made upon it by 
the actual occurrences in Paris. These sentiments are found in his 
letter dated at Cambridge, in July, 1809, addressed to Mr. Talley- 
rand, and published, with Mv. Adams's letter, in the Boston Patriot 
of August 26. It was written in reference to one of Talleyrand's 
letters to Pichon (that dated August 28, 1798) which also Mr. 
Adams had published in the Boston Patriot. This letter contained 
an expression somewhat contemptuous, in regard to his friend and 
" HIS minister," Mr. Gerry, at which he took offence. Talleyrand 
said, " I wished to encourage Mr. Gerry by testim.onies of regard, 
" that his good intentions merited, although I could not dissemble 

* Letter III, dated April 1S09, published l)y Mr. Adams iii the Boston Patriot. 



67 

" that he wanted decision at a moment when he might have easily 
" adjusted every thing. It does not thence follow that I designated 
" him : / will even avow that I think him too irresolute to be Jit to has- 
" ten the conclusion of an affair of this kind.'"' On this Mi*. Gerry 
makes a pointed appeal to Talleyrand : " Let any candid man read 
" our correspondence, and declare, if he can, that your propositions 
" zoere not altogether vague^ from the beginning to the end.'''' 

I have one more case to mention, on which I shall be sparing of 
comments, and content myself with a brief statement of facts : it is 
the case of Fries, of Pennsylvania, twice convicted of treason ; the 
second time on a new trial, ordered on a supposed incorrectness 
discovered after the first conviction, and allowed by the court, 
though not affecting the facts on which the prosecution had taken 
place, nor the construction of the law applied to the facts ; in other 
words, not affecting the merits of the case. Judge Iredell, of the 
supreme court of the United States, presided on the first trial, and 
was assisted by judge Peters, the district judge of Pennsylvania. 
At the second trial, judge Chase presided, and judge Peters satvvith 
him. The first trial had occupied nine days. Judge Chase con- 
sidered, that much irrelevant matter had been sutTered to be intro- 
duced in the first trial, in respect to cases in English books, occur- 
ring in times and under circumstances which rendered them inad- 
missible on trials for treason under the constitution of the United 
States ; and made known this opinion, in writing, that such cases 
would not be permitted to be introduced in the trial of Fries. Upon 
this, William Lewis and A. J. Dallas, of counsel for Fries, refused 
to act ; and advised Fries not to accept of any other counsel, should 
the court off"er to assign any ; which advice Fries accepted. On 
the 24th of April, 1800, the trial commenced. On the evening of 
the second day, the evidence v/as closed; and the court charged 
the jury ; who, retiring for two hours, brought in a verdict of guil- 
ty.* On the second day of May (the last day of the session) Fries 
was brought into court, and received sentence of death. 

Mr. Lewis, in his deposition (to be used on the impeachment of 
judge Chase) states, that, soon after sentence of death had been 
pronounced on Fries, Thomas Adams, son of the president, told 
him, that '• his father wished to know the points and authorities 
" which Mr. Dallas and he had intended to rely on, in favour of 
'' Fries, if they had defended him on the trial. The attorney gen- 
" eral of the United States, Charles Lee, made the like request to 
*' Mr. Lewis and Mr. Dallas. These gendemen made their state- 
" ment accordingly, and sent it to Mr. Lee; who, on the 19th of 
" May, acknowledged the receipt of it, and informed them that he 

* This brief sketch I have abstracted from the deposition of William Rawle, 
Esq (who as district attorney conducted the prosecution) taken to be used in the 
trial of jud-e Chase, on his impeachment. Mr. Rawle remarks, that the trial was 
conducted with the utmost fairness, and that the conduct of the court was marked 
with great tenderness and humanity towards the prisoner. 



68 

" had immediately laid the same before the president, who had di- 
" rected him to return to them his thanks for the trouble they had 
" so obligingly taken." It would not have been difficult to antici- 
pate the consequence of consulting, in this case, only the counsel of 
the convict : Fries was pardoned, it was a popular act, in Pennsyl- 
vania. My removal from office was on the 12th of the same month 
of May, as I have already stated, with its motives. I content my- 
self with just remarking, liiat Mr. Adams sought not any informa- 
tion in this case from the persons best qualified to give it impartial- 
ly — the judges of the court; especially when the presiding judge 
was Samuel Chase, his old congressional friend, of whom he gives 
this honourable character : '• I have long wished for a fair oppor- 
" tunity of transmitting to posterity my humble testimony to the 
" virtues and talents of that able and upright magistrate and states- 
" man."'* ISor would it have been amiss to have applied to William 
Ravvle, district attorney of Pennsylvania, who had conducted both 
the trials, and from whose fair mind might have been expected in- 
formation quite as correct as that which could be derived from the 
counsel of the convict. But if to pardon was the object, it was ex- 
])edient to consult his counsel only. Mr. Dallas, in his deposition 
(also taken in the case of the im]")eachment of judge Chase) avowed 
the leading motive with him and Mr. Lewis, in eventually refusing 
to act as counsel for Fries. He says, " 1 may be permitted, like- 
" wise, to discharge a duty to the counsel, as well as to all the parties 
" interested, in observing, that Mr. Lewis and myself were greatly 
" influenced, in the conduct which we pursued, by our opinion of 
" the means most likely to save the life of Fries, under all the cir- 
" cumstances of the case." Judge Chase says, they refused to ap- 
pear for Fries, " because they knew the law and the fact to be 
" against them, and the case to be desperate : and supposed that 
" their withdrawing themselves" [under the circumstances above in- 
timated] "in the event of a conviction, which from their knowledge 
" of the law and the facts they knew to be almost certain,! might 
" aid the prisoner in an application to the President for a pardon. ":{; 
General Hamilton (in the letter of 1800, on the conduct and char- 
acter of Mr. Adams) noticing this case of Fries, and the extraordi- 
nary step of consulting only the culprit's counsel, makes this reflec- 
tion on the pardon : " We are driven to seek a solution for it in 
" som.e system of concession to his political enemies ; a system the 
" most fatal for himself, and for the cause of public order, of any 
" that he could possil^ly devise. It is by temporisings like these, 
" that men at the head of affairs lose the respect both of friends and 

* Letter II, dated April, 1809, published in the Boston Patriot. 

t Lewis and Dallas were Fries"' counsel on his first trial, and therefore perfectly 
acquainted with the merits of the case. 

X Judge Chase''3 Defence before the Senate. 



69 

" foes: it is by temponsings like these, that in times of fcrmenta- 
" tion and commotion, governments are prostrated, which might 
" easily have been upheld by an erect and imposing attitude." 

The reflections of Mr. Adams are of quite a ditlcrcnt complexion. 
In his tenth letter in the Boston Patriot (May 17, 1809) remarking 
on his responsibility for all his executive acts, and therefore that it 
Avas his right and duty to be governed by his ov/n mature and un- 
biassed judgment, though unfortunately it may be in direct contra- 
diction to the advice of all his ministers, he says, " This was my 
" situation in more than one instance. It had been so in the nomi- 
" nation of Mr. Gerry ; it was afterwards so in the pardon of Fi-ies : 
" tzvo measures that I recollect with infinite satisfaction, and -which will 
" console me in my last hour.'''' 

.How much cause for satisfaction and consolation he can find in 
the case of Mr. Gerry, the reader will be able to judge, from the 
proceedings, exhibited in this Review, of that gentleman, as Mr. 
Adams's minister to the French Republic. As to Fries, he having 
been at the head of a second insurrection in Pennsylvania, to pre- 
vent, by forde, the execution of the laws enacted by congress for 
levying taxes laid in pursuance of the express provisions of the ~ 
constitution, and, in 1798, of the most pressing necessity, for the 
common defence of the country, and the protection of its great and 
essential commercial interests, against the hostilities of the French 
Republic ; under these circumstances, the public welfare appeared 
to demand a signal example of inflexible justice. 

We see, however, that in various acts of president Adams, com- 
bined Vvith their apparent motives, he can glory, and draw conso- 
lation, where other men v.ould find cause only for profound regret. 

Those, who have been accustomed to view Mr. Adams as a bold 
and able leader in the American revolution ; as a man of extensive 
learning, and much and useful experience ; as a great and upright 
statesman ; and therefore entitled to all the high oflices and honours 
which his fellow citizens could bestov/, and did confer upon him ; 
will be astonished at the picture of his character presented in this 
Review, and not without difficulty admit that it is a likeness. My 
veracity is pledged for all I state as facts. What I give on infor- 
mation from others, I offer because I think it entitled to belief. Of 
the correctness of my inferences and conjectures from any facts 
and circunistances winch I state, every reader will judge. If, after 
all, any should remain incredulous, Mr. Adams himself may at 
least contribute to remove their unbelief. In the 26th letter, vol. I. 
p. 129, London edition, of his " Defence of the Constitutions of 
" Government of the United States of America," the doubting reader 
may find a solution of the apparent enigma. There Mr. Adams 
says, " The passions are all unlimited ; nature has left them so : if 
" they could be bounded, they would be extinct ; and there is no 
" doubt they are of indispensable importance in the present system. 
" They certainly increase too, by exercise, like the body. Thi 



70 

" love of gold grows faster than the heap of acquisition. The love 
" of praise increases by every gratification ; till it stings like an 
" adder, and bites like a serpent ; till the man is miserable every mo- 
" mcnl zvhen he does not snuff the incense. Ambition strengthens at 
" every advance, and at last takes possession of the zohole soul so ahso- 
" lutely, that the man sees nothing in the world of importance to others, 
" or himself hut in this object. The subtlety of these three passions, 
*' which have been selected from all the others because they are 
" aristocratical passions, in subduing all others, and even the under- 
" standing itself, if not the conscience too, until they become abso- 
" lute and imperious masters of the whole mind, is a curious specu- 
"lation." He then mentions " the cunning with which thej'^ hide 
" themselves from others, and from the man himself too ; the pa- 
" tience with which they wait for opportunities; the torments they 
" voluntarily suffer for a time, to secure a full enjoyment at length." 

On this recital, who can forbear to exclaim, '^ Ecce Homo !" or, 
in the solemn words of Nathan to David, " Thou art the man !" 

Mr. Adams would spurn at an exhortation from me ; but he may 
not refuse to apply to himself his own admonition. " Men should 
" endeavour at a balance of affections and appetites, under the mo- 
" narchy of Reason and Conscience within, as well as at a balance 
" of power without. If they surrender the guidance, for any course 
" of time, to any one passion, they may depend upon finding it, in 
'' the end, an usurping, domineering, cruel tyrant.'''*' 

At the age of eighty-eight years, it might be expected that a 
man's strong passions would have cooled; but those of Mr. Adams, 
by an immoderate indulgence, have acquired the mastery of his 
soul ; and now, incapable of personally enjoying their gratification, 
he lives in his son ; and, if he survive a few more months, he will 
be pleased or tormented, as that son shall succeed or fail, in the 
last object to which American ambition can aspire. 

In the account here given of the intrigue in which the precipitate 
iiistitution of the mission to France originated, compared with Mr. 
Adams's too often repeated avowals of public motives exclusively, 
every reader will have the means of forming his opinion, whether 
these, or others purely selfsh, the offspring of his ungoverned ruling 
passions, were the decisive inducements. But although he readily 
adopted the measure, it may easily be imagined that it was the 
contrivance of a more cool and crafty head — of the man of whom 
that experienced diplomatist, Mr. Liston, once said, that, " for con- 
" ducting an intrigue, there Avas not one American who came with- 
" in a thousand miles of him."t This crafty person perfectly un- 
derstood the character of Mr. Adams, and knew the avenues to his 
heart. Mr. Liston said, at the same time, " that never, at any 
" government where he had been a minister, had he so little trouble 

* Same volume, p. 130. 

t I received this anecdote from an unquestionably correct source, a very intelli- 
gent American gentleman present in the company when the remark M^as made. 



71 

' in gaining all desirable information : that from Mr. Adams him- 
" self he obtained what he wanted; for that nothing more was re- 
" quisite than to listen, while he took his own course in talking." 
This brings to my mind an anecdote, of late accidentally commu- 
nicated to me. Mr. Adams paid a handsome compliment to Wash- 
ington, and said, " He could keep his mouth shut — / never could.''' 
And this again reminds me of a letter written to me some years 
ago by a gentleman of respectable character, of which the follow- 
ing is an extract : 

'' Some time in the fall of 1807, I was in company with general 

" Henry Lee, at in Virginia. During the day, various topics of 

" conversation were introduced. Among others, some remarks were 
" made upon the unhappy consequences which had resulted from 
" the change in the federal administration of the government of the 
"" United States. And this change was in a great measure, by the 
" person submitting these remarks, attributed to the apathy and 
" inertness of federalists at elections. General Lee replied, that 
" he did not hesitate to allow some influence to that cause, but that 
'• he ascribed the principal cause to Mr. Adams himself; and then 
"remarked, that being in Philadelphia in the summer of 1800, 
" when the subject of the approaching presidential election had ex- 
" cited much interest, he dined with Mr. Adams, in company with 
" Mr. Jefterson. In the afternoon, when Mr. Jefferson had retired, 
" he took the liberty to caution Mr. Adams, who had been, as he 
" considered, very unguarded in the presence of Mr. Jefferson ; 
" and observed, with the view to enforce that caution, that he 
" knew Mr. Jefferson was using all his influence and intrigue to 
" supersede him in the presidential chair. Blr. Adams received 
" this friendly admonition with apparent displeasure ; and observed, 
" with warmth, that he believed Mr. Jefierson to be more friendly 
" towards him, than many who professed to be his friends ; and 
" that he further believed, Mr. Jefferson never had the ambition or 
" desire to aspire to any higher distinction than lo be his first lieu- 
" tenant." 

So respectable is the source of this information, that it requires 
no confirmation. It has, besides, the advantage of internal evidence 
of its correctness, in the perfectly characteristic answer of Mr. 
Adams, Avhich concludes the extract. This, probably, was the 
time when Mr. Jefferson was making his warmest professions of 
friendship to Mr. Adams, of which the latter afterwards found he 
had been the dupe, and the discovery of which authorized him to 
reproach Mr. Jefferson with " a want of sincerity." Three years 
before, Mr. Jefferson had proclaimed his humble pretensions, in his 
inaugural address to the senate, when he took the chair in that as- 
sembly ; he having been elected vice-president, as Mr. Adams was 
elected president, of the United States. Mr. Jefferson appeared to 
rejoice that the burthen of the chief executive power had fallen on 
Adams's shoulders, so much abler than his own to sustain its 



72 

weight ! Remarking to the senate, that the primary business of the 
office of vice-president being to preside over the forms of that 
house, lie added, •' No one more sincerely prays that no accident 
" may call me to the higher and more important functions which 
"the constitution devolves on this office." This profession was un- 
necessary — but not without an object. To the uninlbrmed (in all 
communities the numerous class) as to the true characters of pub- 
lic men, it bore the appearance of the amiable virtue of humility ; 
and Mr. Jefferson believed in its auspicious tendency to advance 
liis interest on the next occasion; not doubling, in reference either 
to philosophy or the gospel, the correctness of the position, " He 
" that huniblelh himself shall be exalted." Among those in public 
life, or the citizens well acquainted with distinguished public char- 
acters, there was one, and 1 presume but one, in the United States, 
who supposed Mr. Jefferson's declaration to have come from the 
heart : 1 hardly need say, that this one Avas Mr. Adams. 

Mr. Adams catches at every straw, and sometimes at phantoms, 
which, in the use he makes of them, may have even a remote ten- 
dency to give a colour of necessity for instituting his extraordinary 
mission to the French Republic in 1799. For this end, he allows 
himself to go back to the year 1793, to exhibit the temper of the 
people in relation to France and Great Britain ; and tells the fol- 
lowing tale : '' Jonathan Dickinson Sargeant and Dr. Hutchinson, 
"two old revolutionary Americans, e-.Lremely popular, put theni- 
'■' selves at the head of the mob. "Washington's house was sur- 
" rounded by an innumerable multitude, from day to day, huzzaing, 
'• demanding war against England, cursing Washington, and crying 
"success to the French patriots and virtuous republicans." — "J. 
" Q. Adams first turned this tide ; and the yellow fever completed 
" the salvation of Washington. Sargeant and Hutchinson died of 
" it. I was assured, soon after, by some of the most sensible, sub- 
*'stantial and intelligent quakers, that nothing but the yellow fever 
" saved Washington from being dragged out of his house, or being 
" compelled to declare war against England."* This story was too 
absurd and ridiculous to be believed. When writifig it, ?Jr. Adams 
forgot that the president of the United States did not possess the power 
to dccku'e war ; and that no leader of a mob in Philadelphia could be 
so ignorant as not to Icnow that congress alone possessed that power. 
1 do not know whether Dr. Hutchinson left any offspring ; but the 
respectable sons of Mr. Sargeant will not thank Mr. Adams for 
placing their father, an eminent lawyer, and the attorney general 
of Pennsylvania, at the head of a mob^ and of a mob to commit 
such an outrage on the president of the United States — and that 
president, Washington. Incredible, however, as was this story — of 
which I had never heard before — 1 wrote to William Rawle, Esq. 
at that time the district attorney of the United States for Pcnnsyl- 

* Letter to Cimningham, No. XII, Oct. 15, 1808. 



73 

vania ; and, referring him to Mr. Adams's statement, requested an 
answer. In his letter, dated the 18th of last December, he thus 
writes : " In respect to the mob asserted to have surrounded the 
" president's house, &:c. &c. Judge Peters and I have already had 
" several conversations. We read this part of the Cunningham 
" Correspondence with surprise, as w^e neither of us at the time 
" knew, nor till then had heard, of such transactions. The judge 
" lived out of town, but was frequently in town. I resided about 
" three of our squares distant from the president, passed his door 
" almost every day, and regularly attended his weekly levees. I 
" never noticed the slightest disturbance of the kind. Mr. Sar- 
" geant and Dr. Hutchinson, although zealous in their politics, were 
" not men who would have so degraded themselves." 

Where, let me now ask, could this mob story have its origin ? It is 
a sheer fabrication. But who was its artificer ? Mr. Adams is res- 
ponsible for it. And it further shows the justness of the remark I 
have had occasion to make and to repeat, that where his passions 
or interested views are enlisted, no reliance can be placed on his 
statements. 

Hamilton acknowledged, and every other well-informed man 
will acknowledge, that Mr. Adams, in 1798, contributed largely to 
rouse the spirit of the nation to resistance against the unexampled 
insults and injuries we had experienced from the French Republic ; 
and he boasts of the beneficial operation of the measures then taken, 
and of our naval successes in the limited war authorized by con- 
gress ; when, as he says,* " the proud pavilion of France was, in 
" many glaring instances, humiliated under the eagles and stripes 
" of the United States." But the greatest triumph of all, he says, was 
in the humiliation of the haughty directory ; who, renouncing all their 
unfounded claims, sought for peace — " transmitting to him the most 
" positive assurances, in several various ways, both official and in- 
" oflicial, that they would receive his minsters, and makepeace on his 
" o'um terms.'''' These last words are, assuredly, a fond assumption 
of Mr. Adams. The directory could never have entertained the 
idea of giving Mr. Adams a carte blanche, on which to write what 
articles he pleased. It is too absurd to be imagined, except by Mr. 
Adams when his mind was highly sublimated. Had such an offer 
been made, it would have furnished additional ground for believing 
the directory were not sincere. But, unfortunately, in the heyday 
of victory, when the United States were rising in their own estim.a- 
tion, and were cheered by the salutations of admii'ing Europe, the 
American admiral struck his flag ; the " proud pavilion of France" 
rose above the " eagles and the stripes ;" and, instead of " making 
" peace on his own terms," he received the law from France. He 
even gave up the trophies of our victories, stipulating to restore to 
France her national vessels captured by ours. He purchased peace 

* Letter No. XXX, Feb. 22, 1809, to Cunningham. 
11 



i 



74 

at the expense of twenty millions of dollars (for that was the esti- 
mated amount of French spoliations) relinquished to France, without 
any equivalent. For the United Slates had been fairly exonerated 
of the burthen of their treaties with France, by her " infractions, 
" violence, injustice, and breach of faith ;"* and congress accord- 
ingly declared them null and void. But the French government 
would not consent to give any indemnities to the American mer- 
chants, for those spoliations of their property, unless the United 
States would revive and restore the treaty of alliance, with its bur- 
thensome guarantee. To get rid of this, the claims of the merchants 
were abandoned. 

Such were the fruits of the glorious naval war of 1798, and of 
the inglorious peace by which it was terminated. Yet, Mr. Adams 
fondly expects, that for these acts in his administration, laurels will 
crown his monument, and flourish in immortal green. " If ever," 
says he, " If ever an historian should arise, fit for the investigation, 
" this transaction must be transmitted to posterity as the most glo- 
" rious period of American history, as the most disinterested, pru- 
" dent and successful conduct in my whole life. For I was obliged 
" to give peace and unexampled prosperity to my country for eight 
" years — and if it is not for a longer duration, it is not my fault — 
" against the advice, entreaties and intrigues of all my ministers, 
" and all the leading federalists in both houses of congress." 

This rodomontade of Mr. Adams is perfectly in character. It is 
akin to another fond conceit of his, which we find in his 28th let- 
ter (July 27, 1809) published in the Boston Patriot — the last para- 
graph : " I shall continue," says he, " to send you extracts of let- 
" ters, by which the rise, progress and conclusion of our connexion 
" with Holland may be in some degree understood ; a connexion 
" ihat accelerated the peace, more than the capture of Cormvallis and 
" his army.''' Who can forbear to smile at the folly as well as the 
vanity of this assumption? Cornwallis surrendered on the 18th of 
October, 1781. On the 27th of February, 1782, a resolution was 
carried, in the house of commons, against the whole force of the 
administration, declaring it to be inexpedient any longer to prose- 
cute offensive war against America. And, to put an end to all fur- 
ther hesitation on the part of the crown, the house of commons, on 
the fourth of March, resolved, " that the house will consider as 
" enemies to his majesty and the country, all those who should advise 
" or attempt a further prosecution of offensive war on the continent 
" of America." These votes were soon followed by a change of 
administration, and by instructions to the commanding officers of 
his Britannic majesty's forces in America, which conformed to 
them.t 

* The words, marked with inverted commas, are Mr. Adams's, in letter XXX, 
to Cunningham, 
t Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. IV, p. 567. 



75 

In the summer following, a British minister was sent to Paris to 
negotiate a treaty of peace with the commissioners of the United 
States. The important preliminary step had been insisted on and 
obtained by Mr. Jay — that the Unittd States were to be treated with as 
alreadif independent. He gave notice of this to Mr. Adams, who was 
in Holland, and who arrived in Paris some time after the middle of 
October. On the 30th of November, 1732, Dr. Franklin, Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Jay signed the preliminary treaty of peace with 
Great Britain, which constituted, in fact, the definitive treaty. 

Now the connexion (by which I presume Mr. Adams mean? the 
treaty) with Holland, negotiated by him, was not concluded unu'l 
the 8th of October, 1782 ; almost a year after the capture of Corn- 
wallis, and when the Dutch government knew the negotiations for 
peace between the United States and Great Britain had been for 
some time going on at Paris. Hence it is past all doubt, that the 
resolutions of the house of commons, the consequent change in the 
British ministry, and the negotiations begun at Paris, decisively in- 
fluenced their high mightinesses to conclude the commercial treaty 
with Mr. Adams. This inference appears inevitable, if we take a 
view of the deplorable state of Holland, after England had made 
war upon her, and cut up her commerce by extensive captures. I 
will take Mr. Adams's own description, in one of his letters to con- 
gress — the epitome of similar information spread over other letters. 
In that of the 4th of August, 1781, he says, " I should scarcely be 
" credited, if I were to describe the present state of the country. 
" There is more animosity against one another, than against the 
" common enemy. They can agree upon nothing ; neither upon 
" war nor peace ; neither upon acknowledging the independence of 
"America nor upon denying it." Again, in the same letter, he 
says, " In short, this nation has no confidence left in its own wis- 
" dom, courage, virtue or power. It has no esteem, nor passion, 
" nor desire, for either. It loves and seeks wealth, and that 
"alone."* 

One word more on Mr. Adams's mission of February 1799, to 
make peace with the French Republic. 

This mission was instituted in the midst of our naval successes, 
and of the increas^ing spirit of the people. But for this, the system 
of administration which had been established under Washington, 
and until then continued under Adams, would have remained. The 
true character of the French government had been developed, and 
generally understood — and consequently was generally detested. 
Our proper weapon of war, our navy, would have been strength- 
ened by an adequate increase ; our commerce would have revived and 
flourished. On the change of the French revolutionary government, 
by which its powers were placed in the hands of Bonaparte, the spirit, 
vigour and ability which the United States had displayed, and would 

* Letter LXIIl, dated Feb. 8, 1810, in the Bostoa Patriot. 



76 

have continued to display, would have secured to them the respect of 
that extraordinary man, and saved them from renewed insults, and 
their commerce from the more extended and aggravated depreda- 
tions under the imperial ruler, than had been experienced from the 
despotic directory. The United States would not have been told 
by Bonaparte's minister, that those who administered their govern- 
ment were " men without just political views, without honour, with- 
" out energy" — an insult unexampled^ and, what is worse, an insult 
UNRESENTED.* Had that first system of the federal government 
continued to operate, we should have had no indefinite embargo, 
prostrating our commerce, in subserviency to France ; nor its se- 
quel, the non-intercourse laws, in their effects and consequences 
alike destructive; nor, finally, a three years' war with Great 
Britain ; a war which cost the United States more than a hundred 
millions of dollars, and the lives of probably thirty thousand of 
our citizens, rcithout obtaining any one of the objects for which it was 
professed to be declared. 

Dr. Johnson has observed, that "there is nothing more dreadful 
" to an author than neglect; compared with which, reproach, ha- 
" tred, and opposition, arc names of happiness." Mr. Adams felt 
himself to be in this unfortunate situation. He began to publish 
his long letters in the Boston Patriot on the 10th of April, 1809; 
and in two months he had advanced to his eighteenth letter — the 
subject, his unadvised mission to France. But it seems no notice 
was taken of them, by friend or foe. " A most profound silence," 
says he, " is observed relative to my scribbles. I say not a word 
" about them to any one ; and nobody says a word to me. The 
" newspapers are still as midnight." But, unwilling to think this 
silence resulted from general indifference to his letters (though 
doubtless that was the fact) he fancied that " sulphureous combus- 
" tibles were preparing under ground, and the electrical fire col- 
" lecting in the clouds," to burst upon him all at once, to destroy 
him : but, consoling himself with the expectation that he might es- 
cape unhurt from the thunder and lightning, and the eruption of the 
volcano, he determines that " his pen shall go as long as his fingers 
" can hold it."t Some of his well-wishers, perceiving that in his own 
bosom the lightning and the fiery lava were preparing, may regret 
that they ever found vent, satisfied that in the end the explosion and 
eruption will not injure those he meant to destroy, and that the 
great sufferer will be himself. They may see verified his own as- 
sertion, that "records themselves" [his letters were designed for 
records] " are often liars ;" and his prediction fulfilled, that " he 
should not be believed." The statements and evidences, which I 

* Letter of Feb. 14, 1810, from the French minister, the duke de Cadore, to 
general Armstrong'. Madison was then president, 
t Letter XXXVIII, Juue 7, 1809, to Cunningham. 



77 

have exhibited, must convince every impartial reader, that his re- 
cords are not entitled to belief, 

Mr. Adams often complains that the federalists are his enemies ; 
sometimes limiting the charge to their leaders. If this were true, 
what was the cause ? The federalists wished to retain their ascen- 
dency, for their own sake and their country's ; and every body of 
men, every association, will have a leader or leaders. Mr. Adams 
was once their chief. And what produced an alienation ? Their 
principles and system of government remained unchanged. To 
the conduct of their chief, then, must their alienation be ascribed. 
And how was it possible for men of intelligent and independent 
minds to persevere in their confidence, and continue their attach- 
ment, where they saw, constantly displayed, boundless vanity, dis- 
gusting egotism, repulsive self-sufficiency, and an ambition so 
inordinate as to be capable of sacrificing principles, system and 
consistency, to personal gratification ? 

Was Mr. Jay ever reproached by any federalist, that deserved 
the name ? With eminent abilities, with as pure integrity, and true 
zeal to serve his country, as any citizen ever displayed, he was 
driven from power by the enemies oi federalism. But the profound 
respect, which his public conduct had produced, has sutiered no 
diminution. Still revered, admired and loved, his name, without a 
stain to lessen its lustre, will descend to posterity with distinguished 
brightness. 



SECTION IV. 

ELBRIDGE GERRY. 

This gentleman makes so prominent a figure in Mr. Adams's let- 
ters in relation both to himself and to me, 1 must unavoidably con- 
sume a good deal of ink and paper in exhibiting his conduct and 
character. I regret the necessity of entering on details, which I 
fear may fatigue the reader, but without which the force of Mr. 
Adams's calumnies and of my vindication cannot be fully under- 
stood. This biographical sketch of Mr. Gerry, though in some re- 
spects minute, may nevertheless be found in a degree interesting, 
when it shall be recollected, that, subsequently to the actions and 
events detailed, he was twice elected by the people of Massachu- 
setts to be governor of that state, and afterwards by the people of 
the United States to be their vice-president. 

Mr. Gerry, appointed a delegate to congress from Massachusetts, 
in 1776, had the good fortune to be present at the adoption of the 
declaration of independence, and the honour of subscribing his 
name to that celebrated state paper. He continued a member of 



78 

that bodv for some years. He was also a member of the national 
convention by which the present constitution of the United States 
was formed (and carped at some of its provisions) and a member of 
the house of representatives in the first congress, and in one or two 
of the succeeding congresses. 

The financial embarrassments of the French monarchy produced, 
about the year 1787, a crisis, which, in a succession of remedial 
measures and reforms, issued in the subversion of the monarchy, 
and the establishment of a republic. The people of the United 
States, flourishing and happy in their own republican institutions, 
rejoiced in the prospect of a free government to be established in 
France. This joy was raised to enthusiasm, by the recollection of 
the aids received from that country in eflecting their own inde- 
pendence. A war between France and her neighbours soon suc- 
ceeded. The energies of her government, and the zeal of the peo- 
ple, brought powerful armies into the field ; which enabled her to 
defeat her enemies, and to invade their territories. In a few years, 
the neighbouring nations were subdued. Her pride increased with 
her conquests ; and her injustice was not slow to follow in their 
train. '• 1 considered (says the wise man) all the oppressions that 
" are done under the sun — and on the side of the oppressors there was 
" POWER." A series of unprincipled rulers governed the state, and in 
succession cut off the heads of their predecessors. At length a 
constitution was formed, and a government organized, on republican 
principles, which gave hopes, to the lovers of liberty, of a perma- 
nent establishment. The legislature was composed of two branches, 
denominated the Council of Ancients, and the Council of Five 
Hundred; and the executive consisted of five persons, called the 
Directory. But the revolutionary spirit continued. The executive 
power found the means of impairing the independence of the legis- 
lature ; and, practising much tyranny at home, set no limits to its 
exercise on all the nations within its reach. Remote as were the 
United States, their commerce brought them near to every portion 
of the world. Upon various pretences, all alike unfounded, the 
corsairs of France were let loose upon that commerce, and her 
government insulted our country. 

Willing to hope that these outrages and injuries originated in 
misrepresentations and misconceptions of the conduct and views of 
the United States in relation to France, president Washington ap- 
pointed general Charles Cotesworth Pinckney minister pfenipoten- 
tiary to the French republic, to make to its government those frank 
and friendly explanations, which, if received in the spirit with which 
they were to be offered, would restore harmony and a beneficial 
intercourse between the two countries. General Pinckney, accept- 
ing the appointment, proceeded on his mission, and early in Decem- 
ber, 1796, arrived at Paris. He was introduced to the minister for 
foreign affairs, Mr. de la Croix, by Mr. Monroe, as his successor 
in the station of minister plenipotentiary from the United States ; 



79 

and in that character delivered an official copy of his letters of cre- 
dence, which announced his public character, under the signature 
of the president and the great seal of the United States. General 
Pinckney's public character being thus ascertained, all the indigni- 
ties practised towards him by the French government were insults, 
as well to the country which he represented, as to himself. 
Anxious, however, to restore that harmony which once existed be- 
tween America and France, Finckney forbore to resent this treat- 
ment, hoping that a reconciliation might yet be effected. But he 
was disappointed, and was required to leave France. Upon this 
requisition he quitted Paris, and travelled with his family to Am- 
sterdam, there to await the orders of his government. General 
Pinckney might bear those indignities with the more patience, be- 
cause they were not peculiar to him. In one of his letters to the 
department of state, he says, " 1 am informed that they have alrea- 
" dy sent off thirteen foreign ministers ; and a late emigrant,* now 
" here, has assured them, that America is not of greater conse- 
" quence to them, nor ought to be treated with greater respect, than 
*' Geneva or Genoa." " Those who regard us as being of some 
" consequence (continues general Pinckney) seem to have taken up 
*' an idea, that our government acts upon principles opposed to the 
" real sentiments of a large majority of our people ; and they are 
" willing to temporise until the event of the election of president is 
" known ; thinking, if one public character [Adams] is chosen, he 
" will be attached to the interest of Great Britain ; and that if 
*' another character [Jefferson] is elected, he will be (to use the ex- 
" pression of Du Pont de Nemours in the council of ancients) de- 
" voted to the interest of France." Every body knows that Adams 
and Jefferson were the rival candidates for the presidency, on the 
retirement of Washington. 

Notwithstanding this haughty and insolent rejection of general 
Pinckney, it was thought expedient to make one more effort to re- 
cover the good will of our termagant sister. A more solemn em- 
bassy was therefore instituted ; and general Pinckne}'", general 
Marshall, and Francis Dana, then chief justice of Massachusetts, 
were appointed by president Adams, with the advice and consent 
of the senate, " envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary 
" of the United States to the French republic." Elbridge Gerry was 
Mr. Adams's choice ; and it was with some difficulty that the heads 
of departments prevailed on him to substitute Mr. Dana ; the same 
gentleman of whom Mr. Adams made mention, alike honourable 

* Meaning Mr. Talleyrand, I presume, who visited this country in the year 
1794 ; appeared in the character of an emigrant, and was treated with hospitality 
and respect. If his object in coming to the United States was to escape the guil- 
lotine, yet, from what is mentioned by general Pinckney, we may infer that he 
acted the part of a spy ; and probably in that character made his peace with the 
directory, who in 1797 appointed him their minister for foreign affairs. For his 
great taleuts and othtr qualities, no man was better adapted to their service. 



80 

and just, in his letters published in the Boston Patriot, in 1809-10. 
But Mr. Dana, declining the service, Mr. Adams recurred to the 
first object of his partiality, Mr. Gerry. Further opposition was 
vain. One reason assigned by Mr. Adams for preferring Mr. Ger- 
ry was (and 1 wish it to be remembered) that, besides possessing 
the requisite talents, ^e was a Jinn man, and superior to all the arts 
of French seduction ! 

Marshall and Gerry arrived in France about the last of Septem- 
ber, 1797, and proceeded to Paris, where general Pinckney joined 
them. They in due form announced their arrival to Mr. Talley- 
rand, the French minister for foreign aflairs. Cards of hospitality 
were sent them, to save them from molestation by the police; and 
they expected to be formally received, and to enter on the business 
of their mission. But in a few days they had reason to think that 
the first favourable appearances were delusive. They delivered to 
Mr. Talleyrand copies of their letters of credence from the presi- 
dent, showing their characters, and desiring full credit to be given 
to their communications. But they were not admitted to an audi- 
ence of the directory. At length, certain propositions were made 
to them by Mr. Talleyrand's agents to which they must assent, as 
preliminaries to their admission as ministers of the United States. 
These preliminaries were, a disavowal of some parts of the presi- 
dent's speech to congress, touching the conduct of the French gov- 
ernment, notoriously founded on facts, and therefore impossible to 
be disavowed ; but at which the directory affected to be ofTended. 
Nevertheless, they were not inexorable. Their extreme resent- 
ments might be allayed, and their avoundeu honour healed, by a 
douceur (gratuity or bribe) of fifty thousand pounds sterling (222,000 
dollars) for the pockets of the directory and their minister Talley- 
rand ; and a loan to the amount of thirty-two millions of florins, 
equal to twelve millions eight hundred thousand dollars ; for which 
Dutch paper securities, under the name of Rescriptions, of that 
nominal sum, but acknowledged to be worth not more than ten shil- 
lings in the pound, might be assigned to the United States. These 
modest propositions were of course not assented to. Our envoys had 
no power to give their assent. Their instructions expressly forbade 
the making of any loan : it would have viokited our duty as a neu- 
tral nation. But if the douceur had been given, and our envoys 
had been so far disposed to assent to a loan as to consult their gov- 
ernment upon it (an operation of full six months) which indeed they 
offered to do ; the horrible depredations on our commerce were not 
to be discontinued ; and these were already estimated at fifteen 
millions of dollars, and were still going on with unremitting activity. 

The names of Talleyrand's private agents, designated by the let- 
ters X and Y, were written at length in our envoys' despatches ; 
but accompanied with an engagement, on the part of the United 
States, that their names should in no event be made public. For this 
reason, when the despatches were to be laid before congress, I sub- 



81 

slituted the letters X and Y. The letters W and Z were also in- 
troduced bj me, gratuitously, instead of the proper names of two 
other persons who had some agency in these transactions, and 
through whom X ond Y might perhaps be discovered. 

Mr. Talleyrand's corrupt overtures were repeated, and pressed 
upon the envoys; and soon with threats of vengeance I'rom the di- 
rectorjs if not complied with. Thanks to the intelligence and firm- 
ness of Pinckney and Marshall, these threats were utterly disre- 
garded. I do not add the name of Mr. Gerry, although he then 
concurred with them, for reasons which will hereafter appear. 

Thus slighted, thus insulted, and kept at an oflicial distance, 
Pinckney and Marshall would not make to Talleyrand, what he 
desired, inofficial visits to discuss official business.* Mr. Gerry, 
however, because he had seen Talleyrand in the United States, in 
the form of an emigrant, was pleased, conlrury to the opinions of both 
of his colleagues, to make him an early visit. Once he was accom- 
panied by Mr. Y and Mr. Z. The latter was a French gentleman, 
occasionally if not regularly employed by Talleyrand ; and, under- 
standing the English language, served as an interpreter. Mr. Ger- 
ry, thus in the presence of Y and Z, spoke to Mr. Talleyrand of 
the propositions which had been made to our envoj^s by Y, in be- 
half of Mr. Talleyrand : to which statement the latter answered, 
" The information Mr. Y had given was just, and might always be 
" relied on." 

Although not received, yet the depredations on our commerce, 
the capture and condemnation of our vessels, were so extensive, and 
pressed with ardour, that Pinckney and Marshall proposed the 
making of a respectful communication to the minister, to pray for a 
suspension of those proceedings until the further order of the direc- 
tory. " Mr. Gerry is of a contrary opinion : he apprehends that 
" by hurrying we shall irritate the government."t it was now the 
15th of October. To several subsequent attempts to act with some 
decision, Mr. Gerry was constantly opposed. War, lil:e a terrible 
spectre, had risen up to his view. Precipitation, he said, would 
certainly produce war. Yet he acknowledged the demands of 
France to be unjust, and her treatment of the envoys insulting ; and 
to such a degree, that, if proceeding from any other government 
in the world!^ he said he would not submit to them for ten days. 

Near a month having elapsed, since the envoys had delivered to 
the French minister copies of their letters of credence, without their 
being admitted to an audience of the directory, Pinckney and Mar-^ 
shalfvv'ishcd to call the attention of the minister to the subject of 
their mission. To this Mr. Gerry at length agreed ; but the next 
day changed his mind, and proposed the postponement of such a 

* At a subsequent period, events of magnitude, affecting the United Slates, in- 
duced tliem to depart from this determination. 

t General Marshall's manuscript journal, a copy of which is now before me. 

12 



82 

letter until all their conversations already detailed should be put 
in cipher (a tedious operation) and six copies made out and sent to 
their government. " This (says general Marshall in his journal) 
" would, on a reasonable calculation, require about two or three 
" months." However, a letter having been prepared, and submit- 
ted to Mr. Gerry, and he having employed a day in making essen- 
tial changes, to adapt it to his own taste — to which the other two 
envoys yielded, for the sake of unanimity — on the 11th of Novem- 
ber it was sent to Mr. Talleyrand. No answer, however, was 
given to it. 

Three months having elapsed, general Marshall draughted a long 
letter, consisting of a justification of the conduct of our government 
in relation to France. This was done by the 10th of January, 1 798. 
It was submitted to Mr. Gerry (whose humour it was necessary to 
consult to obtain his signature) to suggest any alterations and amend- 
ments he might think proper. That such a letter should be writ- 
ten, had been agreed on by the 18th of December; and that it 
should be concluded with a request to the French government to 
open the negotiation, or to grant to the envoys their passports, to 
return home. The letter was closed, however, in very gentle terms 
(undoubtedly to satisfy Mr. Gerry) requesting, that if no hope re- 
mained of restoring harmony between the two republics, by amica- 
ble negotiation, "• their return to their own country might be facili- 
" tated." Mr. Gerry's vexatious delays prevented the completion 
and translation of the letter until the 31st of January, when it was 
signed, and sent to the French minister. 

Mr. Gerry appears now to have had frequent appointments to 
meet Mr. Talleyrand; but this gentleman was often absent, nor did 
he think Mr. Gerry of consequence enough to make any apology 
for repeated disappointments, until a fourth had occurred. Then 
one of Talleyrand's secretaries called on Mr. Gerry, to make a 
slight apology ; and this secretary took this opportunity (Feb. 3) to 
remark, that they had received a very long letter from the envoys, 
and inquired what was its purport — " for they could not take the, 
" trouble to read it !" and he added, " that such long letters w-ere 
" not to the taste oi the French government, who liked a short ad- 
" dress, coming at once to the point." No ; the peremptory de- 
mands of that government, just or unjust, on the neighbouring na- 
tions, subjugated or intimidated by the French arms, superseded all 
negotiation; and the like short work was intended to be made with 
the United States. The secretary invited Mr. Gerry to see Mr. 
Talleyrand the next day. 

" February 4. — Mr. Gerry returned from his visit to Mr. Talley- 
" rand, and informed me (says general Marshall) that communica- 
" fions and propositions had been made to him by that gentleman, 
" which he was not at liberty to impart to general Pinckney or m^^- 
" self; that he had also propounded some questions to the "^minister, 
" which had produced some change in the proposition from its ori- 



83 

" ginal aspect; that he was to give an answer to-morrow or the day 
"after; and that upon it probably depended peace or war.''* 

So this distinguished diplomatist, Mr. Gerry, the favourite of Mr. 
Adams, " whose negotiations were more useful and successful than 
" those of either of his colleagues"! — " by way of excellence (says 
" Mr. Adams) my own ambassador, for I had appointed him against 
" the advice of all my ministers."! — This envoy, one of three, and 
the last of the three, to whom the great interests of the United 
States in relation to France had been entrusted, engages in private 
consultations with the French minister, and under an injunction of 
secrecy, to which he pledges himself, on the business of their im- 
portant mission ! And on his answer to that minister, he says, " pro- 
'• bably depended peace or war !" And the whole of this machina- 
tion was to be concealed from his colleagues I So gross a misde- 
meanor must be ascribed either to corruption, or to weakness and 
pusillanimity and vanity: I am ready to acquit him of the first. 

On the 18th of January, at the instance of the directory, the two 
legislative councils passed a decree, enacting that " every vessel 
" found at sea, loaded in whole or in part with merchandise, the 
" production of England or of her possessions, shall be declared 
" good prize, whoever the owner of these goods or merchandise 
" may }De."§ On the 6th of February, general Marshall put into 
Mr. Gerry's hands the draught of a letter to the French minister, 
remonstrating against that decree, and closing with a request of 
passports. But Mr. Gerry was too busily occupied with his secret 
negotiations with that minister to attend to the letter, though it 
would affect nearly every American vessel on the ocean. On the 
14th of February Mr. Gerry returned the draught of the letter, 
with some amendments. It was then put under copy, and trans- 
lated.|| On the 18th, being fully prepared, it was offered to Mr. 
Gerry to sign — which he declined. 

The envoys had been waiting for an answer to their long letter, 
dated the 17th and delivered to the minister on the 31st of Janua- 
ry ; in which, as before mentioned, they had minutely examined 
all the subjects on which the French government had made com- 
plaints, arid exhibited a complete vindication of their own. At 
fen2:th Mr. Talleyrand, on the 18th of March, deigned to send 
them an answer, in the usual style of French republican sophistry 



* General MarshalPs manuscript journal. The above paragraph I have copied 
verbatim. For all other details concerning the envoys and their proceedings, in 
Paris, which are not communicated in their public despatches, I am indebted to 
General Marshall's journal, of which, on his return from France, he allowed me 
to take a copy. The original is in his hands. 

t So says Mr. Adams in letter XIV, Nov. 7, 1808, to Cunningham. 

X Letter XXXIV, March 20, 1809, to Cunningham. 

J This is the prototype of Bonaparte's Berlin decree. 

II The envoys' letters to Mr. Talleyrand were in their own language, but ac- 
companied by French translations, as well to prevent misconstructions, as any pre- 
tence for delay in answering them. 



84 

and round assertions, which he knew were alike false and insulting, 
and near its close is the following paragraph : 

" it is, therefore, only in order to smooth the way of discussions, 
*' that the undersigned has entered into the preceding explanations. 
" It is with the same view, that he declares to the commissioners 
" and envoys extraordinary, that, notw ithstanding the kind of pre- 
"judice which has been entertained with respect to them, the 
" executive directory is disposed to treat with that one of the three, 
" whose opinions, presumed to be more impartial, promise, in the 
" course of the explanations, more of that reciprocal confidence 
" which is indispensable." 

The above paragraph, being interpreted, would read thus : — 
" You, Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall, discerning what the rights 
" and interests of your country demand, and being determined ta 
" maintain them, are not the persons with whom the directory 
" choose to have any intercourse. Mr. Gerry, on the contrary, 
" being more open to useful impressions, ' more impartiaP — that is, 
" not partial to those rights and interests, at least so far as com- 
" ports with the present views and wants of the French govern- 
" ment — possesses the qualifications proper for an envoy with whom 
" the cHrcctory will negotiate." 

At the beginning, Mr. Talleyrand's agents X and Y had stated 
to the envoys the necessity of paying money, and a great deal of 
it, to sooth the irritated directory, and of agreeing to a yery large 
loan. The envoys repelled these demands ; and assured those 
agents, and Mr. Talleyrand himself, that they had no power to 
make any loan of money ; and, finally, that their instroctious for- 
bade their agreeing (o a loan. Mr. Gerry concurred with his col- 
leagues in these declarations. But, after he had been closeted by 
Talleyrand, and invited to and indulged in frequent secret con- 
ferences, he came out a convert to the minister's avowed opinion, 
that a loan, to be paid after the war with England, was not forbid- 
den by their instructions ; although the direct object of such a stipu- 
lation was, to raise the money upon it immediately, to aid in carry- 
ing on the existing tear ! And in this new opinion, enforced by the 
terror of the war with which Talleyrand had inspired him, Mr. 
Gerry persisted, in opposition to the plain and unanswerable argu- 
ments of his colleagues. Their instruction, on this question, was in 
these words — "That no aid be stipulated in favour of France dur- 
" ing the present war." 

On the 3d of April, the envoys sent to the French minister a full 
answer to his letter of the loih of March; and concluded with 
saying, that if " it should be the will of the directory to order pass- 
'• ports for the whole or any number of tljem, you will please to 
" accompany such passports with letters of safe conduct, which 
" will entirely protect from the cruisers of France the vessels in 
" which they may respectively sail, and give to their persons, suite, 



85 

" and property that perfect security to uhich the laws and usages 
" of nations entitle them." 

After this, general Marshall prepared for his departure, and 
waited only the order of the directory as to a passport and letter of 
safe conduct. But these they wished to avoid giving : for though 
it was perfectly clear that J\Ir. Gcrri/ was their m«n, they desired 
not to make a formal selection of him; but that generals Pinckncy 
and Marshall, by asking })assports for themselves, would, in etfect, 
make the selection ; and by thus withdrawing, in appearance 
voluntarily, leave Mr. Gerry more at liberty, with some colour of 
authority, to negotiate alone. It is due to him to say, that he was 
not guilty of this last degree of folly : he undertook only to nego- 
tiate informally, and in this way suffered himself to be amused and 
trifled with for above four months ; two months and a half of that 
time after he had received instructions from his government to leave 
France. He had repeatedly told his colleagues that he would not 
stay ; but changed his mind afterward, and said he would stay, to 
prevent a war. Threats of various kinds had been thrown out, for 
six months, to alarm the envoys, and frighten them into a submission 
to the arbitrary will of the directory; none of which had been car- 
ried into execution ; and amonc; them this bu2;bear of immediate 
war, which Mr. Gerry had now been persuaded to believe would 
become a reality, and which nothing but his remaining in France 
"would prevent. 

The sickness of general Pinckney's daughter compelled him to 
stay some time in France. General Marshall embarked without 
delay ; and his safe return was a subject of cordial congratulation 
among his independent fellow-citizens. 

The despatches from our envoys, in which the unjust and cor- 
rupt demands of the French government were displayed, having 
been communicated to congress, they ordered them to be publish- 
ed. They were of course circulated by newspapers, and reached 
England; and from England they travelled to Paris. Upon their 
arrival, Mr. Talleyrand, with singular effrontery, wrote to Mr. 
Gerry the following letter, dated May 30, 1798. 

"I communicate to you, sir, a London gazette of the 15th of May. You mil 
therein find a very strange publication. I cannot observe without surprise, 
that intriguers have profited of the insulated condition in which the envoys of 
the United States have kept themselves, to make proposals and hold conversa- 
tions, the object of which was evidently to deceive you. I pray you to make 
known to me immediately the names denoted by the initials W, X, Y and Z, 
and that of the woman who is described as having had conversations with Mr. 
Pinckney upon the interests of America. If you are averse to sending them 
to me in'writing, be pleased to communicate them confidentially to the bearer. 

" I must rely upon your eagerness to enable the government to fathom those 
practices, of which I felicitate you on not having been the dupe, and which 
you must wish to see cleared up. 

Accept, &c. CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND." 



86 

It is difficult to conceive of a more pointed insult than was in 
this Ictlcr offered to Mr. Gerry. He was present with Pinckney 
and Marshall, and heard all the propositions for the douceur and 
the loan, made by X and Y, in Talleyrand's behalf, and had 
signed all the desjiatches which Talleyrand now called " strange 
" publications." Further — Mr. Gerry went with Y to Mr. Talley- 
rand's office (as before mentioned) where Mr. Gerry told him "that 
*' Mr. Y had stated to him some propositions as coming from Mr. 
" Talleyrand, respecting which Mr. Gerry could give no opinion." 
Mr. Gerry made some other observations : after which, Mr. Tal- 
leyrand said, " that the information Mr. Y had given him (Mr. Ger- 
" ry) was just, and might always be relied on." Now, the precise 
propositions offered by Y, that morning, are thus given, in the en- 
voys' despatches, as stated by Mr. Y. to Mr. Gerry himself. " He 
" (Mr. Y) then stated, that two measures, which Mr. Talleyrand 
" proposed, being adopted, a restoration of friendship between the 
" republics would follow immediately ; the one was a gratuity of 
" 50,000 pounds sterling ; the other, a purchase of thirty-two mil- 
" lions of Dutch rescriptions." Still further ; at a preceding inter- 
view between Mr. Talleyrand and Mr. Gerry, Mr. Z being present, 
Mr. Gerry said, " that as to a loan, we had no powers Avhatever to 
make one; '• that if we were to attempt it, we should deceive himself 

" and the directory; but that we could send one of our number 

" for instructions on this proposition, if deemed expedient, provided 
" the other objects of the negotiation could be discussed and adjust- 
" ed;" concluding with a reference to Talleyrand's desire to "confer 
" with the envoys individually." To this Mr. Talleyrand answered, 
" He should be glad to confer with the other envoys individually ; 
" but that this matter about the money must be settled directly^ without 
" sending to America ; that he would not communicate the arret for 
" a week ; and that if we could adjust the difficulty respecting the 
" speech, an application would nevertheless go to the United States 
" for a loan." This conversation was on the 28th of October, 
twenty-four days after all the envoys had arrived in Paris. The 
threatened arret was to order them off. 

The reader now sees, that the two conversations held by Mr. 
Gerry with Mr. Talleyrand demonstrate, that the money propositions 
of the " intriguers" are precisely those of Mr. Talleyrand himself — 
Mr. Y present in one instance, and Mr. Z in the other ; that Talley- 
rand distinguished between the loan — for which the American gov- 
ernment must be consulted, and the money — " which must be settled 
" directly ;" which was the douceur, or gratuity, of 50,000 pounds 
sterling. Yet, with all this certainty that X and Y were Talley- 
rand's agents, Mr. Gerry yields to his demands, and certifies their 
names ! He wished to have evaded the disgraceful compliance ; 
but exacted only one condition, Talleyrand's assurance that their 
names should not be published on his (Gerry's) authority. Talley- 



87 

rand answers, '■ that they shall not be published as coming from 
" him." Then follows the certificate in these words : 

''Paris, June 1798. Prairial, 6 an. 
" The names of tlie persons designated in the communications of the envoys 
extraordinary of the United States to their government, published in the Com- 
mercial Advertiser of the 11th of April last at iN'ew-YorIi, are as follow : 

X is Mr. , 

Y is Mr. Bellamy, 

Z is Mr. Hauteval. E. GERRY." 

" To the J\Iinister of Foreign Affairs 
of the French Republic." 

This certificate is No. 12, among the documents communicated 
to congress by Mr. Adams, on the 18:h of January, 1799; and to 
this No. 1 2 1 then subjoined the following note : 

" Mr. Gerry has inserted the proper name of X in this document, as given 
to Mr. Talleyrand ; but the person designated bj' X not having (like Y) avow- 
ed himself, the promise made to him and Y, ' that their names should in no 
event be made public,' is still obligatory on the Executive in respect to X, and 
therefore his name is here omitted. T. PICKERING." 

But, besides thus debasing himself in giving to Talleyrand the 
names of his own agents, Mr. Gerry stated, that " they did not, to 
" his knowledge, produce credentials or documents of any kind." 
But what credentials could be necessary, when Mr. Talleyrand had 
acknowledged to Mr. Gerry himself, that Y was his agent in the 
propositions he had made ; when not only X^ but Talleyrand also, 
nad made to ]Mr. Gerry the same propositions, for the gratuity and 
a loan ? Mr. Gerry did not stop here : in another letter to Talley- 
rand, he says, " In regard to the citizens attached to your employ- 
" ment, and authorized by jou to see the envoys on your official 
" communications, I do not recollect a word from any of them whicii 
" had the least relation to the proposition, made by X and Y in 
" their informal negotiations, to pay money for corrupt purposes." 
Now when, on the 23th of October, Mv. Talleyrand made to Mr. 
Gerry the same money propositions, (as I have before stated) Z 
(Mr. Hauteval) was present, and was desired by Talleyrand to re- 
peat what he had said to Mr. Gerry. Another fact was certified 
by Mr. Gerry — that three of the persons were foreigners, and the 
fourth (Hauteval) Mr. Gerry says, " acted merely as a xnessenger 
'" and linguist." — Mr. Talleyrand had now obtained, through Mr. 
Gerrj^'s pusillanimity, the ground-work for a publication in Paris, 
ridiculing the envoys as the dupes of the pretended intriguers, and 
using Mr. Gerry's answers on the subject to justify the statement. 
Mr. Hauteval was not merely a messenger and linguist, but a solici- 
tor, in this business, for Mr. Talleyrand ; of wliich take the follow- 
ing decisive proof, it being an extract of a letter, dated June 15, 
1793, from Mr. King, our minister in London, to the secretary of 



88 

state, and which was published, as a note, in my report. Col. 
Trumbull is the painter so well known in that profession. 

" Col. Trumbull, who was at Paris soon after the arrival there 
"of the commissioners, has more than once informed me, that Hau- 
" teval told him, that both the doucotr and the loan were indispensa- 
" ble ; and urged him to employ his influence with the American 
" commissioners to offer the hribc^ as well as the loan.'''' Yet this 
same Mr. Hauteval, acting a part in this government farce, writes 
to Mr. Talleyrand — " My sensibility must be much affected on 
*' finding myself, under the letter Z, acting a part in company with 
" certain intriguers, whose plan it doubtless was to take advantage of 
" the good faith of the American envoys, and make them their dupes." 
— " Citzen" Talleyrand, now prince Talleyrand, was long enough 
minister of foreign affairs to accumulate a princely fortune, by prac- 
tising, for himself and his principals, on the vassal states subdued by, 
or trembling in terror of, French armies, the same exactions wilh 
those he atteinpted to impose on the American envoys.* 

On the 4th and 5th of March 1793, the first despatches from our 
envoys came (o hand. Being voluminous, and in cipher, much time 
was required to decipher them, and make copies to be laid before 
congress. On the 23d of that month, by the president's direction, 
I wrote a letter, addressed to all the envoj^s ; in v.hich I quote from 
their No. 5, dated the Gth of January, the following passage: You 
"• repeat, that there exists no hope of your being officially received 
"by that government, or that the objects of your mission will be 
" in any way accomplished." ' This opinion is sanctioned by the 
whole tenor of your communications; and we trust that soon after 
the date of your No. 5 you closed your mission, by demanding 
passports to leave the territories of the French Republic' Then, 
-adverting to the fair and honourable views of the American gov- 
ernment, which dictated the mission, and the extreme neglect with 
which they, and through them their country, had been treated by 
the government of France, my letter proceeds : " Under these cir- 
" cumstances, the president presumes that you have long since quit- 
*' ted Paris and the French dominions." Then, noticing their 
intention to make one more attempt to drav/ the French govern- 
ment to an open negotiation, in which there was a bare possibility 
of succeeding, the },rcsident authorized their staying to complete a, 
treaty; but, if there appeared -a design in that government to pro- 
crastinate, they were directed to break off the negotiation, demand 
their passports, and return. " For (it was added) you will consider, 
^^ that suspense is ruinous to the essential interests of your country;" 
and this instruction was given them : " In no event is a treaty to be 
-"purchased with money, by loan or otherwise. There can be no 

* It is perhaps hardly known, that thii? prince is a citizen of Pennsylvania. He 
■was citizcnized when there in the form of a French emigfrant. I have somewhere 
among my papers a copy of the certificate of his adiJiission. 



89 

" safety in a treaty so obtained. A loan to the republic would 
" violate our neutrality ; and a douceur to the men now in power, 
" might, by their successors, be urged as a reason lor annulling the 
" treaty ; or, as a precedent for further and repeated demands." 

In his letter of May 13th, addressed to me, Mr. Gerry acknow- 
ledged the receipt of my letter of the 23d of March, delivered to 
him the preceding evening by the special messenger, sent to France 
in a public vessel of the United States. The instructions in that 
letter Mr. Gerry said he should duly observe ; yet suffered himself 
to be amused by Talleyrand's idle proposals of a negotiation, until 
near the end of July ; even when the French minister's letters were 
marked with repetitions of insulting sentiments towards the Ameri- 
can government, particularly in suggesting doubts of its sincerity in 
its measures to effect a settlement of differences — reproaches which 
Mr. Gerry knew to be unfounded — and after he had, to his col- 
leagues, pronounced the government of the French Republic " the 
" proudest as well as the most unjust government on the face of the 
" earth ; that it was so elevated by its victories as to hold in per- 
"fect contempt all the rights of others; and that with this disposi- 
" tion it would certainly make war on us, if we refused to comply 
" with what its pride would insist on, because the measure had been 
" proposed.'"* Thus completely had Blr. Adams's able and magna- 
nimous ambassador become the dupe of the French minister's 
threats, mingled with blandishments (lattcring to his vanity. Mr. 
Gerry had even tbe folly to imagine his colleagues to be envious of 
his good fortune : '■ They were wounded (he said) and he was not 
" surprised at it, hy the manner in which they had been treated by 
" the government of France, and the difference which had been 
" used with respect to him."t How differently his great friend and 
protector, president Adams, at that time, viewed his conduct, will 
appear by the following extracts of my letter, dated June 25, 1798, 
to Mr. Gerry, which, together with his voluminous documents, were 
by the president communicated to congress on the 1 Sth of Jan. 1799. 

Extract of the letter to Mr. Gerry, dated June 25, 1798. 
" Bj' the instructions dated the 23d of March, which apreeabij' to the prcsi- 
dent's directions I addressed to generals Pincliney and Marshall and j ourself, 
and of which six sets were transmitted, one by a despatch boat sent on purpose, 
and some of which doubtless reached you during- the last month, you will have 
seen that it was expected that all of you would have left France lonjj before 
those instructions couid arrive, and which were transmitted rather from abund- 
ant caution tlian necessity, seeing- no probability or hope existed that you 
would accomplish the object of your mission. The respect due to yourselves 
and to your country irresistibly required that you should turn your backs to a 
government that treated both with contempt ; a contempt not diminished but 
a'To-ravcUed by ths flattering but insidious distinction in your favour, in dispar- 
a-ement of men of such respectable talents, untainted honour and pure patriotism, 
as generals Pinckney and Marshcdl, and in whom their government and country 

* General Marshall's Journal— Feb. 26, 1798. 
t General Marshall's Journal — April 3. 
13 



90 

reposed entire confidence; and especially when the real object of that distinction 
was to enable the French government, trampling on the authority and dignity of 
your own, to designate an envoy with whom they would condescend to negotiate. 
It is therefore to be regretted, that you did not concur with your colleagues in 
demanding passports to quit the territories of the French Republic, some time 
before they left Paris." 

" It is presumed that you will cousider the instructions of the 23d of March, 
before mentioned, as an effectual recall. Lest, however, by any possibility, 
those instructions should not have reached you, and you should still be in 
France, / am directed by the President to transmit to you this letter, and to 
inform you, that you are to consider it as a positive letter of recall." 

If the reader has had patience to accompany me through this 
abridged history of the occurrences at Paris in relation to the 
French government and our envoys, and particularly to the con- 
duct of Mr. Gerry, he will be prepared to understand and appre- 
ciate the passages in my report on French affairs, which Mr. Adams 
marked to be struck out, and which were accordingly expunged. 
The reader will see, in another part of this Review, general Mar- 
shall's testimony to the correctness of the report as laid before con- 
gress. The following passages between brackets are those ordered 
to be struck out, and complete the report as originally written and 
submitted to the president. A few words of the report, as adopted 
by the president, are introduced, to render those passages perfectly 
intelligible. 

Paragraph 6. Mr. Gerry wishes to evade Talleyrand's demand 
of the names of the persons designated by the letters W, X, Y and 
Z, and with reason ; for he and his colleagues had " promised 
" Messrs. X and Y that their names should in no event be made 
" public. [I know not what considerations could av arrant a depar- 
" ture from this promise, on the supposition that their names w^ere 
"unknown to the French government; and admitting that they 
" were known (which was the fact) the minister's request was im- 
" pertinent and insulting ; and to comply with it was submitting to 
" an indignit}^"] In the same paragraph — " Mr. Gerry had Mr. 
" Talleyrand's own assurance that Mr. Y was acting by his author- 
" ity. [It is to be regretted that an envoy from the United States 
" should have consented to act a part in this farce."] In the same 
paragraph — Mr. Gerry, " besides formally certifying to Mr. Talley- 
" rand the names of his ozon private agents, [giving colour for his af- 
" fected ignorance of them, in using the hypothetical expression, ' if 
•' any of those persons were unauthorized to act,' and adding] that 
" ' they did not produce, to his knowledge, credentials,' &c." In 
the same paragraph — " Mr. Talleyrand answered, that the informa- 
"tion Mr. Y had given him (Mr. Gerry) was just, and might always 
" be relied on. [This surely was a ' credential' for Mr. Y, to vouch 
*' not only for his past, but for any future, communications to the 
" envoj^s, as made by the minister's authority."]* 

* The following passage is in the same paragraph of the printed report: " Mr. 
Y, himself, who is Mr. Bellamy, of Hamburgh, in his public vindication, declares, 
that ' he had done nothing, said nothing, and vs^rittea uothing, without the orders 
of citizen Talleyrand, ■• " 



91 

^^ Paragraph 9. " On the 2d of December X, Y and Z dined to- 
^ gether at Mr. Talleyrand's [familiarlj] in company with Mr. 
1^' Gerry; and, after rising from table, the money propositions, which 

had before been made, were repeated, in the room and in the 
" presence, though perhaps not in the hearing, of Mr. Talleyrand. 
"Mr. X put the question to Mr. Gerry in direct terms, either, 
" ' whether the envoys would give the douceur,'' or ' whether they 
" had got the mormj ready,' [meaning the douceur."] 

Paragraph 1 2. " It was to accomplish the object of these [scan- 
•' dalous] intrigues, that the American envoys were kept at Paris, 
" unreceived, six months after their credentials were laid before the 
" directory." 

Paragraph 13. The report, mentioning the threats, which during 
four or live months had been uttered, of immediate orders to the 
envoys to quit France, and of war in its most dreadful forms— 
which threats had induced Mr. Gerry to separate himself from his 
colleagues, and stay in Paris — goes on to say, that "those threats 
" had not been executed, and the unworthy purposes for which they 
" had been uttered had been obvious. "^[It is further unfortunate 
" that Mr. Gerry should have imagined it to be his duty to remam 
" in France near three months after the instructions reached him, 
" busied in informal negotiations, hopeless in their nature, and un- 
" warranted by those instructions; in which, too, he was pointedl_y 
" told, ' that suspense was ruinous to the essential interests of his 
*' country.'"] 

Paragragh 20. " Hitherto, instead of a [sincere and anxious] 
" desire to obtain a reconciliation, we can discover in the French 
government only empty professions of a desire to conciliate" — 

Paragraph 23. " On the 1 2th of May, the new instructions of 
" March 23d, sent by the Sophia packet, reached Mr. Gerry, [re- 
" quiring him, situated as he then was, to demand his passports, and 
" return ; for, possessing no powers to negotiate, it was impossible 
*' that any circumstance mentioned in the instructions, to warrant 
" his staying any longer in France, could exist. He was informed, 
" too, that suspense, the natural consequence of his stay, was ruin- 
" ous to the essential interests of his country. Mr. Gerry, however, 
" instead of conceiving himself bound immediately to demand his 
" passports and return, only thought himself authorized to give im- 
" mediate information to the minister of foreign affairs,] and he gave 
" immediate notice to the minister, that he should return to America 
" in the Sophia, as soon as she could be fitted for sea. [He re- 
" mained, nevertheless, much longer in France, vainly seeking paci- 
*' lie arrangements."] 

Paragraph 28. " Such are the proceedings of the French gov- 
" crnment, by its minister, Mr. Talleyrand, before the arrival of 
" the printed despatches of the envoys : [and where can we find 
"any mark of ' a sincere and anxious desire to obtain a reconcilia- 
" tion ?' "] 



92 

Same paragraph. After noticing the impossibility of the envoys* 
negotiating on the terms proposed by Mr. Talleyrand, " because 
" directly repugnant to their instructions : [It is really surprising 
*' that such renewed propositions should not have appeared to Mr. 
*' Gerry to be, what they really were, illusory, and calculated only 
" to amuse."] 

Paragraph 34. "While we, amused and deluded by warm but 
" empty professions of the pacific views and wishes of France, and 
*' by [Mr. Gerry's] informal conferences, might wait in fruitless tor- 
" por, hoping for a peaceful result." 

Such arc the passages in my original report, on which Mr. Adams 
has made the atrocious charge, that " I inserted a most virulent, 
" false and calumnious philippic against Gerry." I need not 
appeal to generals Pinckney and Marshall, Avho are intimately ac- 
quainted with facts, and will assuredly justify all 1 have said ; but 
every reader will see, that the parts struck out are only inferences 
and remarks on notorious facts — facts stated in the official des- 
patches of the envoys which are signed by Mr. Gerry, or in his 
own official communications. But the reader cannot possibly con- 
ceive of the virulence of Mr. Adams himself, in this case, without 
seeing that charge in its connexions : it shall be exhibited. 

Mr. Adams, having taken an unadvised step, in instituting a mis- 
sion to France in February 1799, nominated Mr. Murray, then 
minister resident of the United States in Holland, sole minister 
plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty with the government of the 
French Republic. The measure was condemned by the most en- 
lightened federalists. It paralysed the public spirit, at that time 
roused to a proper sense of the unexampled injuries and insults of 
that republic, it subverted the temple of federalism ; and, burying 
its destroyer in its ruins, rendered strikingly applicable to Mr, 
Adams, his own quotation in another case — 

-Nee lex est justior uUa 



Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. 

Which, as applied in this case, may be thus translated : J^o Icno is 
more just jhan that to the contrivers of mischief their otru arts should prove 
fatal. This measure, if clearly correct and patriotic, in the actual 
state of things, in relation to France and the United States, would 
not have required so long and laboured an argument, and the pro- 
duction of so many letters and papers, for its justification. Yet it is 
the burden of a number of his letters to Cunningham, and of many 
more which he published in 1809, in the Boston Patriot. And he 
introduces the names of many persons who had given him in- 
formation, official and inofficial, that the directory desired to 
make peace ; all which, in his communications to congress in 
December 1798, he declared unsatisfactory; yet in 1809 he mus- 
ters them together, in order to prove the propriety, expediency, and 



93 

moral certainty, of negotiating an honourable peace.* In his 
message of June 21, 1798, to congress— feeling ^vith some 
force the monstrous indignities with which Pinckney, the minis- 
ter of Washington, and Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry, his own 
ministers, had been treated and finally rejected — he said, '' 1 
" will never send another minister to France, without assurances 
" that he will be received, respected and honoured, as the repre- 
" senlative of a great, free, powerful and independent nation." In 
his letter No. XXXI V, March 20, 1809, to Cunningham, forgetting 
what he had declared eleven years before, concerning Gerry's in- 
formation, he says, " Mr. Gerry, in an official public letter, convey- 
" ed to me, at the request of the directory and their secretary. 
" Talleyrand, the most positive and express assurances that I had 
" demanded." The reader will now compare this solemn assevera- 
tion with Mr. Adams's message to the senate, nominating Mr. 
Murray; in which no use is made of Mr. Gerry's official letter, 
but of Talleyrand's letter to Pichon, which he communicated to 
Mr. Murray, who sent it to his own government. t 

" Gentlemen of the Senate, 

"I transmit to you a document which seems to be intended to be a compli- 
ance witli a condition mentioned at the conclusion of my messag-e to congress, 
of the 21st of June last. Always disposed and ready to embrace every plausi- 
ble appearance of pi'obability of pveser\ing or restoring' tranquillity, I nominate 
William Vans Murray, our minister resident at the Hague, to be minister ple- 
nipotentiary of the United States to the Frencli Republic. If the senate shall 
adviic and consent to his appointment, effectual care shall be taken in his in- 
structions, that he shall not go to France, without direct and unequivocal assur- 



*■ Among these, was the late Dr. Logan of Pennsylvania. He -was of the socie- 
ty of Friends, whose leading principle, every one knows, is opposed to war. A 
gentleman of fortune, he went to Europe at his own expense. Anxious for peace, 
he visited Paris, in 1798, and conversed with Talleyrand, from whom he received 
the information to which Mr. Adams refers ; and, on his return home, in the au- 
tumn of that year, communicated the same to him. Yet, far from setting any 
value upon it at that time, it became a subject of his censure. In his answer, 
Dec. 12, 1798, to the senate's address, Mr. Adams says, " Although the olFicious 
interference of individuals, without public character or authority, is not entitled 
to any credit, yet it deserves to be considered Avhether that temerity and imperti- 
nence of individuals, aifecting to interfere in public affairs between France and 
the United States, whether by their secret correspondence or otherwise, aud intend- 
ed to impose upon the people, and separate them from their government, ought not 
to be inquired into and corrected." This suggestion, doubtless, gave rise to an act 
of congress to restrain such private interferences ; and its popular name was the 
Logan Laic. Dr. Logan was an acquaintance of mine ; and 1 am perfectly satis- 
fied of the purity of his views. For the same solicitude to preserve peace to his 
country, he made a voyage to England, in 1810, when there were signs of war in 
the American horizon. He visited British ministers — noblemen — gentlemen — 
farmers — in a word, some among all classes of the people, in various parts of En^-- 
land ; and when 1 saw him, on his return, he informed me, that all were averse to 
a v/ar with the United States — with the single exception of one lieutenant in the 
navy. 

f Mr. Pichon, once known in America as the charge des affaires of the French 
republic, was at this time officiating in the same character in Holland, where Mr. 
Murray was resident as the minister of the United States. The " document,'"' 
mentioned by the president, was Talleyrand's letter to Pichon of Sept. 28, 1798. 



94 

ances from the French government, signified by their minister of foreign rela- 
tions, that he shall be received in character, shall enjoy the privileges 
attached to his character by the law of nations, and that a minister of equal 
rank, title and powers shall be appointed to treat with him, to discuss and 
conclude all controversies between the two republics. JOHN ADAMS. 
« Feb. 18, 1799." 

The reader must be struck with what Mr. Adams assumed for 
the ground of this nomination, relating to a matter of very high 
national concern, and manifestly of great difficulty to manage, and 
bring to a safe and successful issue. The ground assumed did not 
rest on probability, nor the appearance of probability ; but only on 
the plausible appearance of probability ! And the business to be 
transacted was the same for which he had before appointed three 
envoys, two of whom were general Pinckney and general Marshall. 
Mr. Murray, though worthy and respectable, yet, standing alone, 
would not have received the senate's approbation. This was mani- 
fested to the president by a committee of that body. The measure 
itself excited extreme surprise; and, excepting to a few members in 
the opposition parly who were in the secret, the surprise was as univer- 
sal as extreme. No head of a department — not a single federalist 
— had any previous knowledge of it. The shock to the minds of 
federalists, generally, may be judged of by this fact : As soon as 
the report of the nomination to the senate took air, a member of 
the house of representatives, and a friend to Mr. Adams, came to 
my office, and accosted me in this manner : How is all this? the 
president's nomination of Mr. Murray to be minister to France? I 
answered, I know nothing more about it than you do ; 1 have only 
heard that the nomination has been made. " Why, is the man 
mad ?" was the member's reply. 

But let us compare the different acts of Mr. Adams. If he had 
received '• the most positive and express assurances that he had de- 
" manded," as the condition on which alone he would send another 
minister to France, why, in the message to the senate, in order to 
reconcile them to the measure, and gain their approbation of the 
nomination, does he declare, that Mr. Murray shall " not go to 
" France without direct and unequivocal assurances from the French 
" government, signified by their minister of foreign relations, that 
•' he shall be received" in the manner required by his message to 
congress of the 21st of June, 1798? The two statements are in- 
cono-ruous. The simple truth is, unquestionably, that the materials 
he had mustered up, with great diligence, and many of which he 
had displayed in the Boston Patriot, in 1809, and referred to in his 
letters to Cunningham, to justify himself for instituting the mission, 
were (like the British orders in council, dragged in by his son J. 
Q. Adams, to justify his active zeal and vote in imposing on our 
country Mr. Jefierson's ruinous embargo) the fruit of after thoughts. 
Most of them, and especially those furnished by Mr. Gerry, on 
which so much stress was now laid, had been a good while known 



95 

to him.* To which add the verbal communications from that gen- 
tleman to the president while remaining at Qiiincy. The reader 
shall now see of how little value they were in his estimation, only 
a short time before he instituted the mission. 

Congress assembled in Philadelphia in December, 1798. On the 
8th of that month, Mr. Adams addressed that body, according to 
the usage under the federal administrations, in a speech. After 
noticing the failure of the measures which had been taken to settle 
our controversies with France, and some of the outrageous acts of 
its government, he says, " Hitherto, therefore, nothing is discovera- 
" ble in the conduct of France, which ought to change or relax our 
" measures of defence ; on the contrary, to extend and invigorate 
*' them is our true policy." Again — '* It is peace that we have 
*' uniformly and perseveringly cultivated ; and harmony between 
*' us and France may be restored at her option. But to send anoth- 
" er minister, without more determinate assurances that he roould be 
*' received, would he an act of humiliation, to which the United States 
" ought not to submit. It must therefore be left to France (if she is, 
*' indeed, desirous of accommodation) to take the requisite steps." 

The senate, on the 12th of December, presented to the president 
a respectful answer to his speech, echoing his sentiments. In the 
president's reply we have this passage — '' I have seen no real evi- 
" dence of any change of system or disposition in the French re- 
*' public towards the United States." It should also be recollected, 
that so late as the 18th of January, 1799, just one month prior to 
the nomination of Mr. Murray, he laid before congress my report 
on the conduct of the French government towards the United States; 
in the last paragraph of which is this expression : — " Warmly pro- 
" fessing its desire of reconciliation, it gives no evidence of its sin- 
*' cerity ; but'proofs in abundance demonstrate that it is not sincere." 
If ]Mr. Adams had then thought this opinion erroneous, he would 
have marked it to be struck out, as he did some expressions in the 
report which had too pointed a bearing on hi? favourite, Mr. 
Gerry. 

I have already recited Mr. Adams's charge, that in my report I 
^' inserted a most virulent, false and calumnious philippic against 
" Gerry ;" and I presume I have shown to every candid reader that 
the charge is utterly groundless. In truth, all the virulence, false- 
hood and calumny "^belong to ]Mr. Adams, if I forbear, in this 
case, to accuse him of premeditated falsehood, what excuse can be 
offered for the man who, for ten years, can hoard up his resent- 
ments, and then with augmented virulence, even carelessly utter 
unfounded reproaches, which in their nature deeply aftect the 
character of the person at whom they are pointed ? I will now 
give the above mentioned false charge, with its connexions, from 



* Mr 
•of letters 
adelphla. 



. Gerry arrived at Boston the first of October 1798, and delivered his budget 
s to Mr. Adams, then at Quincy, and Mr. Adams cent them to me at I'hil- 



96 

his letter No. XXXIV to Cunningham. My remarks will be m- 
cluded in brackets. 

" You speak of the fortunate issue of mj negotiation with France 
" to my fame ! ! I I cannot express my astonishment. No thanks 
" for that action, the most disinterested^ the most determined and the 
" most successful of my whole life. No acknowledgment of it ever 
" appeared among the republicans ; and the federalists have pur- 
•' sued me with the most unrelenting hatred, and m}^ children too, 
" from that time to this." [Without admitting the existence of that 
" unrelenting hatred," it is obvious to remark, that trimmers between 
two parties lose the respect of both. Mr. Adams then mentions 
the assurances he received, that the government of the French re- 
public would duly admit an American minister to treat of peace; 
and specifies the letter before mentioned, from Mr. Talleyrand to 
Mr. Pichon, French charge dcs aftaires at the Hague, to that effect, 
and which Pichon communicated to Murray.] " And the assurance" 
(says Mr. Adams) " was as complete as words could express." 
[Yet we have before seen that Mr. Adams assured the senate, to 
whom he sent a copy of that letter, that Mr. Murray " should not 
*' go to France without direct and unequivocal assurances from the 
" French government, signified by their minister of foreign relations, 
'* that he should be received in character." 

" The second assurance (says Mr. Adams) was more positive, 
" more explicit and decisive still, and through the most authentic 
" channel that existed. It was Mr. Gerry, one of my own ambas- 
" sadors, and by way of excellence my own ambassador, for I had 
" appointed him against the advice of all my ministers, to the furi- 
" ous provocation of Pickering," [False — "furiously" false : there 
was no passion manifested by me or any other head of department, 
on the occasion. In denying any of Mr. Adams's assertions, I feel 
very little disposed to seek lor any voucher beside my own decla- 
ration. One other head of a department, however, is still living — 
Governor VVolcott of Connecticut, v/ho was then secretary of the 
treasury ; and to him, if any one doubt, an appeal may be made] 
^ and against the advice of all the senators whom he could in- 
" fluence." [I have before stated, that when Mr. Adams first pro- 
posed Mr. Gerry for one of the envoys, the heads of departments 
objected; and that Mr. Adams gave way, and substituted chief 
justice Dana of Massachusetts ; but, on his declining, Mr. Adams 
recurred to Mr. Gerry, and in a manner to preclude, as well as I 
recollect, any further opposition. And as to senators, I am perfect- 
ly satisfied, that I never spoke to any one of them. Wc had entire 
confidence in general Pinckney and general Marshal ; and only 
wished to save them from being embarrassed with a diiTicult and 
troublesome associate ; and such, to their extreme vexation and de- 
lay, Mr. Gerry proved to be.] " Mr. Gerry, in an official public 
" letter, conveyed to mc, at the request of the directory and their 
♦- secretary, Talleyrand, the most poLitive and express assurances. 



97 

" that I had demanded." [Yet Mr. Adams had no confidence in 
them ; as is manifest bj the passages 1 have before quoted from 
his speech to congress in December 1798, and in his reply to the 
answer of the senate on the 12th of that month. To the senate he 
said, " I have seen no real evidence of any change of system or 
" disposition in the French republic towards the United States."] 
" This letter of Mr. Gerry threw Pickering into so furious a rage 
" against Gerry, that in a report to me, which 1 requested him to 
" draw for me to communicate to congress, he inserted a most viru- 
" lent, false and calumnious philippic against Gerry." [1 have had 
occasion to remark, that Mr. Adams, subject to the raging of furious 
passions, fancies, by the aid of that sublimated imagination which 
Hamilton ascribed to him, that the storm within his own breast is 
violently agitating the bosom of another, against whom he is dis- 
charging all its fury. My feelings in relation to Mr. Gerry w^ere 
of a kind totally different from " rage." And once for all I affirm, 
that in my various interviews with Mr. Adams, there was never a 
single instance of passion on my part ; (I had a higher sense of the 
decorum proper to be observed towards the president of the United 
States ;) and, what is not a little remarkable, but one on his ; and 
this on an occasion which would not have produced in any other man 
the smallest emotion.* Mr. Adams proceeds,] " 1 read it with amaze- 
" ment. I scarcely thought that prejudice and party rage could go 
*' so far. 1 told him it would not do; it was very injurious, and to- 
" tally unfounded. I took my pen, and obliterated the whole passage 
" as 1 thought, but after all I Itt some expressions pass which ought 
" to have been erased." [I have already given a iull account of the 
report. As printed, general Marshall has pronounced it correct; 
and the parts struck out, which 1 have accurately stated, every 

* It was this. In 1794, John Q. Adams was appointed minister resident of the 
United States at the Hague. Just before - eneral Washington's last presidency ex- 
pired, he raised J. Q. Adams to the higher grade of minister plenipotentiary to 
Portugal. But his father soon succeeding to the office of president, he changed 
the son's destination from Portugal to Prussia. In making out a new commission, 
I called him late minister resident of the United Stales at the Hague ; doubting 
whether it would be correct to call liira late minister plenipotentiary of the United 
States at tlie court of Lisbon^ seeing that not having gone thither, of course he had 
not been received in that character. I concluded, however, to submit the draught 
to his father, to be approved or altered, as he pleased. He read on till he came to 
" late minister resident of the United States at the Hague," when he burst into a 
passion, and with a loud and rapid voice exclaimed, " Not late minister resident at 
" the Hague, but late minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the court of 
" Lisbon, to which office he was appointed by general Washington — not by me — 
" and so he shall be called." Then, lowering his tone, but speaking with ear- 
nestness, he added, " I am sorry that my son ever went abroad as a minister : I 
" wish he had staid at home ; for there was not a pen in the United States of which 
'• the Jacobins were so much afraid as of my son's !" Where and what is now this 
wonderful son ? Among the men whom his father called Jacobins, — himself, of 
course, a Jacobin. And where, 1 may also ask, is the father ? When the son tacked, 
the father icore ship, and followed in his wake, Jefferson leading the ran ; Jefferson, 
whom, not long before, the father pronounced " the deepest dissembler and most 
'' ai'tfal hypocrite be ever knew." 

14 



98 

reader will see to be the natural inferences and remarks applicable 
to the notorious facts exhibited in public documents vouched by 
Mr. Gerry's own signature.] " Pickering reddened with rage or 
" grief, as if he had been bereaved of a darling child." [This is 
not a whit the more credible for Mr. Adams's having declared it. 
While writing the parts of this letter to Cunningham, in which my 
name is introduced, it is evident that his resentments were kindled 
to a flame ; and thence he fancied that / was red hot.] '• He even 
" went so far as to beg that I would spare it, and let it go to con- 
" gress. But I was inexorable ; and his hatred of me has been 
" unrelenting from that time to this." [The simple history of the 
report is this : As the president was to communicate it to congress, 
I of course submitted it to his inspection and correction. When I 
called for it, and found he had marked some passages to be struck 
out, I, with perfect calmness, observed, that it would produce some 
chasms, and, 1 apprehended, might break the connexion of some 
parts of the report ; and therefore wished it to remain unmutilated. 
Mr. Adams answered, with a voice steady and slow, precisely in 
these words, (I here endeavour to indicate the manner by the 
spaces between them) — " 1 am not going to send to 

'•' congress a philippic against Mr. Gerry." Such is 

the amount of this mighty aflair. 1 took the report, and had a fair 
copy made, leaving out the passages and words to which the presi- 
dent objected ; and, thus expurgated, he laid it before congress. 
The parts struck out were of much less consequence than at first 
sight 1 had supposed.] 

Mr. Adams's blind prejudice in favour of Mr. Gerry was to me 
incomprehensible. I exhibit, elsewhere, an instance in which it 
rose to a ridiculous excess. Perceiving that he entertained a high 
opinion of general Marshall, I put his journal into Mr. Adams's 
hands, hoping that some parts of it, in which his favourite was 
necessarily introduced, would lead him to form more correct ideas 
of his character. Whether he read the journal I do not know : if 
he did, it is plain that it had no eflect ; his prejudices appear to 
have remained unchanged. 

On the 21st of September, 1798, 1 wrote a letter to Mr. Adams, 
at Quincy, of w hich the following is an extract. 

" I have a letter from general Marshall, dated at Richmond the 
15th, in which is the foliowing passage:" 

" I have seldom seen more extraordinary letters than those of Mr. Tallc}'- 
rand to Mr. Gerry. He must liave known in what manner they would have 
been answered before he con Id have ventured to have written them. That he 
should have founded a demand to Mr. Gerry, for the names of certain persons, 
on a document pi-oving' that Mr. Gerry had asserted Mr. Talleyrand to have 
recognized those very persons as his agents, was as pointed an insult as could 
have been given. There is a fact relative to this business, not mentioned in 
the despatches, which deserves to be known. The company at the private 
dinner, to which Mr. Gerry was invited by Mr. Talleyrand, consisted of X> Y 



99 

and Z. After rising from the table, X and Y renewed to Mr. Gerr}', in the 
room and in the presence (thoug-h perhaps not in the hearing) of Talleyrand, 
the money propositions which we had before rejected. " 

About this time I received a letter from Mr. P. Johnson, 
chairman of an assembly of citizens of Prince Edward County in 
Virginia, covering an open address to president Adams ; which I 
reacl. Numerous addresses, from all parts of the union, had been 
presented to Mr. Adams, expressing the just resentment of his fel- 
low-citizens at the deep injuries and insults which avc had too long 
borne from the French republic, and applauding him for the vigour 
he had manifested in his endeavours to rouse his countrymen to 
resist and repel them. But the address from Prince Edward was 
of a character so different, and so charged with insults, that I re- 
fused to be the medium of conveying it to the president, and had 
written a short letter to Mr. Johnson, with which to send back the 
address ; but, just as I was closing it, a newspaper came to hand 
in which the address was published. I then laid aside the letter 
1 had written, and wn-ote one of considerable length to Mr. John- 
son, on the conduct of the French government, in order to justify 
our own ; and in it inserted the anecdote of the private dinner at 
Talleyrand's, w^hen the money propositions were renewed. I 
also mentioned Talleyrand's demand of the names of the intriguers, 
and that Mr. Gerry complied with the insulting request. Having 
caused my letter to Mr. Johnson to be printed, 1 enclosed a copy 
of it to Mr. Adams, who was pleased to notice it as in the fol- 
lowing letter. The reader will see that it is marked private; 
which distinguishes it from his official correspondence with me. 
As it has been his steady aim, in his letters to Cunningham, to 
vilify me, so, in order to counteract his design, Mr. Adams is here 
exhibited against himself. Not that I consider approbation or 
praise, from a man so notoriously governed by his passions, by his 
ambition, vanity and family interest, of any intrinsic value ; but his 
eulogies and censures, Avhen brought together, like two different 
substances in chemical operations, may neutralize each other. 

41 Private." '' Quincy, Oct. 15, 1798. 

" Dear Sir— I received your answer to the address from Virginia, concin- 
nate and consummate. My secretary gave a hint of it to Mrs. Adams and she 
insisted upon his bringing it to her Bedside and reading it to her. She desires 
me to tell you, that weak and low as she is she has spirit enough left to be de- 
lighted with it. She says it is the best answer to an address that ever was writ- 
ten and worth all that ever were written. You may well suppose that I, who 
am 'so severely reflected on by these compliments, am disposed enough to thmk 
them extrava^rant. I however think the answer excellent, and wish you had 
to answer air the saucy addresses I have received. I don't intend to answer 
any more of the disrespectful ones. 

" I am with great esteem, 

"Mr. Pickering. JOHN ADAMS." 

But my letter to P. Johnson, though so acceptable to the presi- 
dent and Mrs. Adams, gave offence to Mr. Gerry, who wrote a 



100 

letter of complaint concerning it to Mr. Adams ; and he transmitted 
the same to me for publication. I refused to publish it, and assign- 
ed this reason — that it would then require from me animadver- 
sions more wounding to Mr. Gerry's feelings than any of the re- 
marks in my letter to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Gerry's letter was re- 
turned to the president to be restored to the writer. It was a long 
letter, and trifling as long. He intended it as a justification of the 
parts of his conduct inParis which I had noticed in my letter to 
Mr. Johnson, its publication would only have exposed him, even 
without comments, to additional reproach. 

The foregoing details of the conduct of Mr. Gerry in Paris, and 
of his intercourse with the French rulers, will, 1 presume, induce 
every reader to assent to the justness of the following summary of 
his character, in relation to that intercourse : — " He was charmed 
" with their words, and duped by their professions ; he had neither 
" spirit nor penetration sufficient to negotiate with men so bold, so 
" cunning and so false." — 1 am well persuaded, notwithstanding the 
astonishing partiality of Mr. Adams, that towards the close of the 
year 1798, when the above sentiment was communicated to him, 
he thought it correct. It was the sentiment of a man,* of whose 
discernment and judgment he has always entertained the highest 
opinion. 



SECTION V. 

LIEUT. COL. WILLIAM STEPHENS SMITH. 

Mr. Adams, in his correspondence with Cunningham, letting slip 
no opportunity to revile and calumniate me, introduced the name 
of his son-in-law, col. Smith, as a theme in relation to which he 
could vent his reproaches. But for this, his name would, on my 
part, have been consigned to oblivion. Compelled, in my own 
justification, to notice him, the facts stated will present a further 
elucidation of Mr. Adams's own character. 

Col. Smith, an inhabitant of New-York, was serving in the revo- 
lutionary war, when an inspectorship was established, in 1778. 
Baron Steuben (a German officer, bred to arms) was appointed 
inspector general, and Smith became one of his deputies. The 
war ended in 1783. In February 1785, congress determined on a 
diplomatic mission to Great Britain, and John Adams was elected 
mmister plenipotentiary, to represent the United States at that 
court. In March, Smith was elected secretary of legation for this 
mission ; having been nominated by Mr. M'Henry, a delegate from 
Maryland, who had also served in the army, and, in the latter 
period of the war, as one of the aids de camp to general Washing- 

* I think it proper to say, it was not general Marshall. 



101 

ton, by whom, in 1795, lie had been appointed secretary of war, 
and from which office, Mr. Adams, after addressing him in oppro- 
brious language, ejected him, a few days prior to my own removal 
from the department of slate. This diplomatic connexion led to a 
family one. Colonel Smith became the son-in-law to Mr. Adams, 
marrying his only daughter. The mission was limited by con- 
gress to three years, after which Smith returned to New-York. 

About this time, the government of the United States was form- 
ed, under the constitution ; and when the funding system and the 
national bank had been established, Smith again went to England, 
with information of the advantages which capitalists might derive 
from the application of their moneys in those establishments, and 
in the purchase of new lands. Smith succeeded in this scheme, 
and large sums were placed in his hands to carry it into execution. 
These funds enabled him to commence a very expensive style of 
living, on his return to New- York. He also engaged in dashing 
speculations, incurred debts, and soon failed ; injuring, of course, 
many creditors, and ruining his friend Burrows, as will presently 
be related. Smith was thus reduced to a state of dependence on 
his father-in-law ; and he, willing to relieve himself, eagerly em- 
braced every opportunity of providing Smith with some public 
office. 

In July, 179G, congress passed a law for raising twelve regi- 
ments of infantry, in addition to the existing military establishment. 
General Washington being appointed commander in chief, he was 
desired to name the persons whom he would recommend to the 
higher offices, and particularly for the general staff. Besides the 
three major generals, Hamilton, Pinckney and Knox, Henry Lee, 
John Brooks, Wm. S. Smith or J. E. Howard, were proposed for 
brigadiers ; Edward Hand, or Jonathan Dayton, or William S. 
Smith, for adjutant general ; and Edw-ard Carrington for quarter 
master general. Col. Carrington had served in that office with 
the southern army, under the command of general Greene; and 
general Hand in the offxe of adjutant general, in the last years of 
the war. 

The secretary of war, M'Henry, having been sent to Mount Ver- 
non with general Washington's commission, I was charged with the 
duties of his office during his absence, and was with Mr. Adams 
when he was making a list of nominations to the senate, from that 
which Mr. M'Henry had transmitted from Mount Vernon by the_ 
mail. The president proposed to give rank to colonel Smith, as a 
brigadier, before Dayton, who had also served in tlie revolutionary 
war, and to name the latter for adjutant general ; but, pausing, he 
said, " I have a good mind to put Dayton before Smith, as a briga- 
" dier, and to nominate Smith for adjutant general ;" and added, 
" When I was in England, several British officers, who had con- 
" versed with colonel Smith, told me that he would make a distin- 
" guished military character." And then, to crown the eulogy, he 



102 

said, " Why, sir, he has seen the grand reviews of the Great Fred- 
" erick, at Potsdam !" This last idea appeared, in the president's 
view, decisive of Smith's great military pretensions. 

Leaving the president, 1 went to congress hall, and sent the door- 
keeper to ask some of the senators of my acquaintance to step out. 
I informed them of the nomination of colonel Smith to be adjutant 
general, presently to be laid before them, and told them why I 
thought he ought not to be approved. The nomination was made; 
and the senate were inclined, at once, to give it their negative ; but 
some of Mr. Adams's particular friends, wishing to save the feelings 
of himself and his family, desired the senate to postpone their deci- 
sion till the next day ; and they would, in the mean time, wait on the 
president, and endeavour to prevail on him to withdraw the nomi- 
nation. They did wait on him — but in vain ; linally telling him, 
however, that if the nomination were not withdrawn, it would be 
negatived. " I will not withdraw the nomination," was his answer. 
The next morning the nomination was taken up, and negatived by 
all the senators, except two. Every circumstance here stated was 
related to me immediately, by one or more of the senators who 
were present. 1 certainly had expressed my opinion to not more 
than half a dozen senators, all federalists ; and not to one who was 
in the " Opposition." The presumption is therefore conclusive, 
that many voted from their information concerning colonel Smith, 
independently of any communication from me. When 1 come to 
another transaction, after the new army was disbanded, it will ap- 
pear that I had not made an erroneous estimate of his character. 

In letter, No. XXXVIII, of the " Correspondence," Mr. Adams 
says, " It is true that Pickering, at the instigation of Hamilton, as I 
" suppose, who was jealous of Smith as a favourite of Washington^ and 
" a belter officer than himself excited a faction against him, and to 
" my knorvledge propagated many scandalous falsehoods concerning 
" him, and got him negatived, though Washington had recommend- 
" ed him to me." Every reader must smile at Mr. Adams's fond 
conceit, that Alexander Hamilton was jealous of colonel Smith, as 
a favourite of Washington, and a better officer than himself! If there 
were the semblance of truth in this ridiculous assertion, it would be 
obvious to ask. Why then did not Washington name Smith to be in- 
spector and major general, instead of Hamilton ; and put the latter 
with the other two gentlemen, who were proposed as candidates for 
the office of adjutant general ; especially as Smith had served under 
Steuben, in the inspector's department? But as to Hamilton's "in- 
" stigation" in the case, the fact is, that about noon, on the da}'' of 
the nomination of Smith, I expressed my opinion of him to some of 
the senators, and the next morning it was negatived; and Hamil- 
ton, utterly ignorant of the matter, was in New-York. Mr. Adams 
refrains from charging me \\'\i\-\ fabricating " scandalous falsehoods'* 
concerning Smith; but says I propagated them. All that 1 said of 
him (excepting in regard to his talents, of which I did not think 



103 

very highly, and I expressed what I thought) I had derived from a 
very credible source, several years before; and on that information 
gave my opinion to some senators. It related to a private trust of 
magnitude, in which colonel Smith was so unfaithful, that it appear- 
ed to me unsafe to commit the confidential office of adjutant general 
to his hands. I was not unaware of the hazard I ran in speaking 
to senators, in this case ; and perfectly remember remarking to 
some one of them, that what 1 had said to him and others, would 
probably, by some means, come to the president's ears, and cause 
my removal from office ; but adding — " I have done only what I 
" thought to be my duty, and am willing to abide the consequences." 
Near the close of the year 1798, general Washington came to 
Philadelphia, to meet generals Hamilton and Pinckney (Knox had 
refused to serve, because he was not appointed the first major gen- 
eral) to consult on the organization of the army. Colonel Smith 
was a candidate for the command of the regiment to be raised in 
the state of New-York ; but Washington and the major generals 
received information so unfavourable to Smith's character, in point 
of integrity, that they did not recommend him. Unwilling however 
to reject him peremptorily, general Washington addressed a letter 
to the secretary of war, in which is the following passage : " As 
" well myself as the two generals whose aid I have had in the' 
" nomination, have been afflicted with the information, well or ill- 
" founded, that he stands charged, in the opinion of his fcllov.-citi- 
" zens, with very serious instances of private misconduct, [instances 
" which affect directly his integrity as a man. The instances al- 
" leged are various, but there is one which has come forward in a 
" shape which did not permit us to refuse it our attention. It re- 
" spccts an attempt knowingly to pledge property to major Bur- 
" rows, by way of security, which was before conveyed to Mr. 
" William Constable, without giving notice of the circumstances, 
" and with the aggravation that major Burrov.^s had become the 
" creditor of colonel Smith, through friendship, to an amount which 
" has proved entirely ruinous to him.] While the impossibility of 
" disregarding this information forbad the selection of colonel Smith 
" absolutely ; yet, the possibility, that it might admit of some fair 
" explanation, dissuaded from a conclusion against him. As it will 
" be in your power to obtain further light on this subject, it has ap- 
" peared advisable to leave this matter in the undetermined form in 
" which it is presented, and to assign the reason for it. You arc at 
" perfect liberty to communicate this letter to the president. Can- 
" dour is particularly due to him in such case. It is my wish to 
'■• give him every proof of frankness, respect and esteem." 'i'his 
letter is dated at Philadelphia, December 13, 1798. On the 17th, 
Mr. M'Henry, the secretary of war, wrote a very kind letter to 
colonel Smith, and enclosed a copy of general Washington's, for the 
purpose of obtaining the explanation of the transaction referred to. 
Smith, on the 20th, answered in a very long explanatory letter ; 



104 

which, no doubt, was perfectly satisfactory to his father-in-law, 
president Adams, who was never disposed to believe any thing ad- 
verse to the character and interest of any of his family. Colonel 
Smith was nominated to the senate, and the nomination received 
their assent. Colonel Smith's explanation, however, differed wide- 
ly from that of major Burrows, whom, profiting of his generous 
friendship, he had reduced from a genteel competency to absolute 
beggary ; — to a condition still worse ; for, after selling his whole 
estate, to fulfil his pecuniary engagements for Smith, he was yet left 
involved, on the same account, and at the mercy of his creditors, 
whose forbearance, only, saved him from a jail. 

The mission to France in 1799, suddenly instituted by president 
Adams, striking the public mind like a shock of electricity, soon 
paralyzed the increased and increasing energies of the nation, ani- 
mated with the brilliant actions of our infant navy ; and there being 
a prospect that a treaty of peace would be the result, the new lit- 
tle army was disbanded, in the summer of 1800. Col. Smith being 
again without employment, the president appointed him surveyor 
of the district of New York, and inspector of the revenue for the 
ports within the same. But this appointment being made in the 
recess of the senate, it was necessary to nominate him to that body, 
on their assembling in November 1 800, at the city of Washington. 
This nomination (as usual when objections or doubts concerning 
the candidate exist) was referred to a committee, of which the late 
Gouverneur Morris Avas chairman.* This nomination of an officer 
of the customs pertaining to the treasury department, the commit- 
tee, of course, applied there for information. The secretary an- 
swered, that he possessed no information respecting this nomination 
of col. Smith. The committee, however, received recommenda- 
tions, under respectable names, in favour of col. Smith ; besides 
letters from the collector and naval officer, certifying col. Smith's 
diligence in his new office. It should be remembered^ that Smith was 
then sianding on his good behaviour : his continuance in office de- 
pended on the approbation of the senate, upon a nomination to be 
made to that body. Other papers were delivered to the commit- 
tee by the secretary of the senate, which, as he informed them, 
had been entrusted to him for that purpose by the president of the 
United States. One of the latter purported to be a copy of a let- 
ter of December 13, 1798, from general Washington to the secre- 
tary of war, of which I have just given an extract. But all that 
part of the extract which I have included between brackets was 
omitted ; that is, all that related to major Burrows. 

Col. Smith's name being thus again brought before the senate, 
when nominated to be surveyor of the customs for the district of 

* It is proper for me to remind the reader, that I had been removed by Mr. 
Adams in the preceding month of May ; but the facts I am going to state, rest on 
authentic documents, copies of v/hich are now before me. 



105 

New York ; and gentlemen recollecting objections made two years 
before, which prevented Washington, with his two generals, dccid- 
edlj recommending Smith for a military commission; the nomina- 
tion was committed, as already mentioned. The committee received 
and collected, in the course of two months, a mass of information, 
which, some time in February 1801 (when the session of congress 
and Mr. Adams's presidency were near expiring) they reported in 
gross to the senate. The whole, in my copy, occupies eighly-six 
pages of large letter paper. The impression left on my mind, from 
the information I received of the transaction, from one or more of 
the senators, is, that the papers were not read in the senate ; unless, 
perhaps, by some individuals, who would toil through them in the 
few remaining busy days of the session ; and, under these circum- 
stances, the nomination was approved, with only eight negatives, 
among whom was Gouverneur Morris, chairman of the committee, 
and perfectly possessed of all the evidence in the case ; and no 
one will question his discernment or impartiality in judging. There 
are other distinguished names, among the negatives, of gentlemen 
still living. 

But I have not done with these documents. The copy of gen- 
eral Washington's letter, relative to Smith, and which was commu- 
nicated by president Adams, by the hands of secretary Otis, to the 
senate, was, as above remarked, essentially mutilated, and on the 
specific point which recpdred explanation^ the case of major Burrows. 

Together with the mutilated copy of General Washington's let- 
ter, president Adams sent to the senate what purported to be a copy 
of col. Smith's explanatory letter, before mentioned; but so muti- 
lated as to be reduced from eight pages to less than four, according 
to the copies of both in my hands ; every part respecting Burrows 
being omitted. But, besides the mutilations in both of these singu- 
lar copies, there were a few interpolations ; some to amend the style, 
and others to give a fairer aspect to Smith's explanations. By 
whom these alterations and amendments were made, docs not aj> 
pear. Col. Smith could not have been so indiscreet ; for he had 
transmitted genuine copies, with other papers (ten in all) to the 
president of the senate, Mr. Jefferson, to be laid before that body ; 
but which Mr. Jefferson sent to Mr. Morris, chairman of the com- 
mittee, as appears by his letter of December 15, 1800. 

Such instances of reprehensible management, as these documents 
exhibited, it was obviously supposed, would not be suffered to re- 
main on the files of the senate. President Adams did withdraw 
them, and (as the information rests on my memory) the very next 
day. Apprehensive of this, some of the senators, by diligent ap- 
plication, and sitting up at night, took copies of them. These 
copies have been fifteen or twenty years in my possession, unseen 
till now ; and no part of them might ever have seen the light, but 
for Mr. Adams's malicious calumnies, respecting my conduct in re- 
lation to Smith, in his letters to Cunningham ; intended, u-ith his 

13 



106 

other calumnies, eventually to he published ; to the mortification of my 
children and children's children — of many affectionate relatives — 
and of numerous respectable friends, so long as my name should 
be remembered. 

I leave the reader to his own reflections on this management of 
president Adams to obtain the senate's approbation of his son-in- 
law, col. Smith, to be surveyor of the customs at New York ; only 
remarking, that the nomination appears to have taken place without 
the privity of the secretary of the treasury, to whose department 
the matter belonged. To the application of the committee for in- 
formation, the secretary (in his letter of Dec. 26, 1800) answered, 
" I possess no information respecting the nomination which the pre- 
"sident of the United States has been pleased to make of William 
" S. Smith, Esq. to be surveyor for the district of New York, and 
" inspector of the revenue for the ports in that district." 

The very serious instances of private misconduct, affecting di- 
rectly col. Smith's integrity as a man, referred to in general Wash- 
ington's letter, and the specific case respecting major Burrows, to 
which Smith ascribes the negative to his nomination as adjutant 
general, were unknown to me when I expressed to some senators 
my opinion that it was not expedient to confer on Smith that confi- 
dential office ; although, by the documents before me, I find those 
" serious instances" were known in New York two years before ; 
and hence, doubtless, the negative votes of many of the senators 
may be accounted for; although Mr. Adams has been pleased, for 
the purpose of reproach, to ascribe to me importance and influence 
enough to determine the votes of the senate : he says, that I " got 
" Smith negatived." That opinion of mine rested wholly on the 
information already intimated, accidentally given me, three or four 
years before, by a gentleman of fair character, Avith whom I was 
acquainted. This was, col. Smith's unfaithfulness in a trust of mag- 
nitude committed to him by sir William Pulteney, a wealthy Eng- 
lishman. 

Having introduced the serious charge against Smith, in general 
Washington's letter, but which he said might possibly admit of a 
fair explanation, candour requires that I should notice what Smith 
said. He roundly denies, but with too much bluster, that he had 
" knowingly" pledged property to Burrows which was before 
conveyed to Mr. Constable ; and says it was by a mere mistake, 
an inadvertence, that his titles to some real estate, already convey- 
ed to Constable, were produced to Burrows's counsel, as of property 
still his own ; and which, by that means, was included with other 
real estate then conveyed to Burrows ; to whom, however, it made 
a difference of ten thousand dollars loss ; and Smith had no other 
property to give as a substitute. It is not a little remarkable, that 
Smith should hsi\e forgotten the conveyance (not of long standing — 
perhaps a year or two) of city lots in New York, to Constable, of 
the value of ten thousand dollars ; though the thing is possible^ 



107 

But this explanatory letter of Smith's — if it deserve the name is 

marked with ingratitude, and replete with misrepresentations, 
respecting major Burrows ; as any one would perceive on the pe- 
rusal of the candid statement of the latter to the senate's committee, 
furnished at their request. Its great length necessarily excludes it 
from this Review. 

After all that Burrows could obtain of Smith, towards the lart^e 
sums he had been obliged to pay for him, Smith remained deeply 
his debtor. Burrows then commenced a suit against him, with a 
view to get hold of any property of his which might be discovered. 
Smith found bail ; but the bail being alarmed, they insisted on 
Smith's relieving them, by surrendering himself to the sheriff; who 
must have committed him to jail. In this forlorn situation, Smith 
wrote to Burrows, praying to be relieved ; for he was then going 
from camp to New- York, to save his bail. That generous-hearted 
man, totally ruined as he had been by Smith, instantly relieved 
him ; saying, he would rather burn his bond than disgrace or injure 
him. General Hamilton wrote to Burrows for the same purpose; 
and, as the letter is not a long one, and has, besides its kindness, 
some pleasantry in it, I give it entire ; the rather, because Mr. 
Adams represents Hamilton (ridiculous as is the idea) to have beea 
jealous of Smith's superior military talents, and his enemy. 

GENERAL Hamilton's letter, to major burrows. 

" Dear Sir, " New-York, March 10, 1800. 

', " The anxiety of col. Smith's bail to yonr suit had like to have shut him up 
yesterday in our prison. The good nature of col. Troup* interposed to save 
him from the disgrace. You would have been sorry if it had happened — be- 
cause you are not vindictive, and because it would utterly have ruined him, 
without doing- you the least good. Many considerations induce me to second 
the advice you will receive from col. Troup — namely, to accept John Doe and 
Richard Roe, characters of ancient renown in the law, for your bail, and to 
proceed to judgment on that basis. If Smith has any real estate, that will se- 
cure it ; and as to his body, it had better continue fat and jolly, to present a 
good front to his country's enemies, than to be sent to pine and grow meagre 
in a nastj' jail. Adieu, 

Your's truly, A.HAMILTON.- j 

I have but slightly adverted to col. Smith's unfaithfulness in the 
trust he accepted from Sir William Pultency. I am now possessed 
of particular and authentic details of his gross mismanagement (to 
use a gentle term) of the property of that gentleman, and of governor 
Hornby; together, amounting to sixty thousand pounds sterling 
(equal to 266,400 dollars) committed to Smith, to be applied (on 
very liberal commissions) to their use, in the United States ; where 
advantageous speculations presented, in the purchase of funded 
debt, bank stock, and new lands ; but of which Smith made no re- 

• Col, Troup was major Burrows's counsel. 



108 

turns. The whole was so soon dissipated, that in 1796 he began 
to borrow money ; and before the close of that year he ruined his 
friend Burrows. The agents of Pulteney and Hornby gathered 
something from the wrecks of the property acquired by Smith with 
their funds. 

I forbear to say more on this subject ; what I have stated being 
sufficient to show the substantial correctness of the information on 
which I thought myself bound to interfere, to prevent his obtaining 
the office of adjutant general. 

The statement I have here made suggests the following questions. 
Can it be supposed that Mr. Adams was ignorant of col. Smith's 
conduct in relation to the funds of Pulteney and Hornby ? If not 
uninformed, what can be offered to justify his nominating him to an 
office in the Revenue department of the United States ? And why 
was the nomination made (as it seems to have been, without the 
privity of the secretary of the treasury ? 

Col. Smith lost his office in the revenue department -in the fol- 
lowing manner : 

The name of general Miranda was familiar in the United States, 
at one period of Mr. Jefferson's presidency. He was a Spaniard, 
born (as I understood) in one of the Spanish American provinces. 
He had been in France, at one period of her revolution ; and, serv- 
ing in her armies, in the rank of major general, barely escaped the 
guillotine, when it was so common to cut off the heads of their mili- 
tary commanders. After this, Miranda came to America, and 
visited the city of Washington, where he spent some time. From 
thence he repaired to New-York, and there engaged practically in 
a project of revolutionizing one of the Spanish provinces. A band 
of Americans, encouraged perhaps by visions of wealth to be ac- 
quired in the country of silver and gold, were induced to embark 
with him in the expedition. Col. Smith, then surveyor of the cus- 
toms for the New-York district, aided Miranda, in forwarding the en- 
terprise ; and, if I do not mistake, permitted one of his sons to go 
with him. This wild, because so premature a project, and so deficient 
in means, necessarily failed, and the Americans were made prisoners. 
The Spanish minister complained of this outrage against the territo- 
ry of a nation with whom the United States were at peace. The 
thing was notorious. To appease the Spaniard, president Jefferson 
deprived Smith of his office ; and the expedition having been set 
on foot, and the means for it prepared, within the United States, in 
violation of an express law of the union. Smith was prosecuted for 
a breach of it. His apology for engaging in it was, that Miranda 
informed him, that Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison approved 
of his plan. This was stated by Smith, soon after he had been 
deprived of his office, in a long letter to his brother-in-law, J. 
Q. Adams, then in the senate of the United States. Smith, thinking 
that in Miranda's information gentlemen would find an excuse 
for his engaging in the expedition, desired the letter might be 
shown 5 and Mr. Adams put it into my hands to read. 



100 

SECTION VI. 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

In Mr. Hamilton's " Letter on the Public Conduct and Character 
*' of John Adams, president of the United States," published in 
1800, prior to the election of president and vice-president, to take 
place in December of that year, Mr. Adams is censured for his va- 
rious measures which resulted in the institution (in February, 1799) 
of a mission to France, to negotiate a treaty with her government. 
This last measure, suddenly taken, without the previous knowledge 
of a single federalist, in or out of the government, occasioned univer- 
sal surprise. A decided majority of the nation had been roused to a 
just resistance of French aggressions. Success attended the vigorous 
measures of the United States ; French armed vessels were captur- 
ed; and our commerce received protection. A continuance of the 
same spirited measures would naturally increase the public ardour. 

In this state of things, Mr. Hamilton expressed his belief, that 
there was a real alteration in public opinion; and, hence, that a 
negotiation to restore peace and a friendly intercourse with France, 
might be more safely and advantageously conducted at Philadel- 
phia than at Paris ; without hazard of dangerous intrigues by any 
French minister who should be sent to the United States. Mr. 
Adams takes this occasion to say not only that Hamilton's concep- 
tions of public opinion were erroneous, but intimates that he was in- 
capable of judging correctly in the case; for which he assigns these 
reasons — " That he was born and bred in the West Indies, till he 
" went to Scotland for education, where he spent his time in a semi- 
" nary of learning till seventeen years of age ; after which, no man 
" ever acquired a national character ; then entered a college at New- 
" York, from whence he issued into the army an aid de camp. In 
" these situations he could scarcely acquire the opinions, feelings 
" or principles of the American people."* This quotation presents 
a statement marked with Mr. Adams's usual incorrectness ; and his 
inference from his assumed facts is on a par with his statement. 
To exhibit his errors, and at the same time gratify the reader, I 
will subjoin a sketch of Mr. Hamilton's early life. 

This eminent man, the son of a Scotch merchant, was born in the 
island of Nevis, in the West Indies ; and. as soon as he Avas old 
enough to be so employed, became a clerk in the counting house of 
Nicholas Cruger, a merchant from New-York, who Avas settled in 
the island of St. Croix. Boy as he w as, the consciousness of a su- 
perior intellect satisfied him that a merchant's store was not the 
proper place for the exertion of his talents. When past the age of 
thirteen years, he was sent to New-York for his education. After 
the preparatory school instruction, he entered the college in that 

* Letter XII, May 26, 1809, published in the Boston Patriot. 



no 

city. The controversy between the British Colonies and the Mo- 
ther Country employed, at that period, the tongues and the pens of 
the most eminent men in America. Hamilton, though engaged in 
his collegiate exercises, was not an unobserving spectator of the 
passing scenes. 

" In this contest with Great Britain (says Dr. Mason) which called 
" forth every talent and every passion, Hamilton's juvenile pen as- 
" serted the claims of the Colonies, against writers from whom it 
" would derogate to say that they were merely respectable. An 
" unknown antagonist, whose thrust was neither to be repelled nor 
"parried, excited inquiry ; and when he began to be discovered, 
" the effect was so apjiarently disproportioned to the cause, that his 
" papers were ascribed to a statesman who then held a happy sway in 
*• the councils of his country, who has since rendered her most cssen- 
♦' tial services, and who still lives to adorn her name.* But the truth 
" could not long be concealed. The powers of Hamilton created 
" their own evidence; and America saw, with astoni^^hment, a lad 
" of seventeen! in the rank of her advocates, at a time when her 
*' advocates were patriots and sages."J 

In the year 1775, after the commencement of hostilities, " Hamil- 
" ton attached himself to one of the uniform companies of militia 
" then forming in the city for the defence of the country, and de- 
" voted much time and attention to their exercises. In the early 
" part of 1776, he received, from the provincial congress of New- 
" York, the appointment of captain of one of the independent com- 
" panics of artillery. "§ " It was while he was training this com- 
" pany, that, for the first time, he was seen by general Greene ; to 
" uiiose discerning eye something more appeared in the conduct of 
" the young captain than was ordinarily exhibited in the parade 
" exercises of that office."l| Near the close of the campaign of 1 776, 
Hamilton was introduced into general Washington's family, as an 
aid de camp. In this situation he continued until the winter of 
1780-1. In 1782-3, he was a delegate from the state of New-York 
in the congress of the United States. It was while a member of 
that body that he saw the letters and communications from our mi- 
nisters at European courts, and among them those of John Adams, 
then minister plenipotentiary to the States of Holland, and one of 
the commissioners for negotiating a peace with Great Britain. These 
negotiations were carried on at Paris, to which city Mr. Adams 
came from the Hague. Mr. Jay, alreeldy there, had taken certain 
decisive preliminary steps, without the concurrence of Dr. Frank- 
lin, our resident minister in France, and another of the peace com- 

* John Jay. 

t Col. Nicholas Fish, a fellow student of Hamilton's, informs me that he was 
about eig^hteen ; and that he saw some of Hamilton's essays before they went to 
the press. 

If. Doctor Mason's oration on the death of Hamilton. 

i Letter of December 26, 1823, from colonel Fish. 

|] Jud»e Johnson's Life of Greene. 



Ill 

missioners. Franklin, caressed by the French, was disposed im- 
plicitly to obey an instruction from congress, wholly ditfcrent in 
spirit from former acts of that body, and unworthy of its w >ll-carn- 
ed public reputation. The object of that instruction was, to submit 
the terms of the treaty of peace with Great Britain absolutely to 
the French court, excepting in the single article of our independ- 
ence. This instruction was obtained, undoubtedly, through the in- 
fluence of the French minister to the United States, the count de la 
Luzerne, and of the able secretary of legation, Mr. Marbois. Had 
this instruction been implicitly obeyed, and had the British govern- 
ment concurred with the plans of the French court, the fisheries, 
the territory west of the Allegany mountain, and the navigation of 
the Mississippi, would have been lost to the United States. Mr. 
Jay, with the foresight, wisdom, firmness and patriotism which have 
always distinguished him, resisted : he laid aside his instructions, 
and alone commenced the negotiation, in a manner to do honour to 
an able, upright and independent American citizen. Mr. Adams 
came to Paris : his views coincided with Mr. Jay's 5 and, eventual- 
ly, Dr. Franklin co-operated with them. Peace was made on terms 
advantageous beyond the most sanguine expectations ; notwithstand- 
ing which, an attempt was made by the members under French in- 
fluence — for there was then, as there has been since, a French 
party in congress — to censure the commissioners; but it failed; and 
praise instead of censure was bestowed on them. Hamilton, 
" dreading the preponderance of foreign influence, as the natural 
" disease of a popular government, was struck at the appearance, 
" in the very cradle of our republic, of a party actuated by an un- 
" due complaisance to foreign power ; and resolved at once to re- 
" sist this bias in our affairs;" " a resolution (says Hamilton) which 
*' has been the chief cause of the persecution I have endured in the 
" subsequent stages of my political life."* 

The agency of Mr. Adams in the peace negotiation made a fav- 
ourable impression on the mind of Hamilton, but not without alloy. 
A scrutiny of Mr. Adams's several communications to Congress 
produced in the mind of Hamilton the following result: He says, 
" I then adopted an opinion, which all my subsequent experience 
" has confirmed, that he is of an imagination sublimated and eccen- 
" trie ; propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment, 
" nor to steady perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct ; and 
" I began to perceive, what has been since too manifest, that to this 
" defect are added the unfortunate foibles of a vanity without 
" bounds, and a jealousy capable of discolouring every object."! 
I greatly mistake if the reader has not found, in this Review, abund- 
ant confirmation of the correctness of Hamilton's opinion. 

It was in the year 1777, that I first saw Hamilton, and perceived 

* Hamilton^? Letter on the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Pre- 
sident of the United States. 
+ The same Letter. 



in 

his importance in the military family of general Washington. The 
subsequent acts of his public life, and the eminent and disinterested 
services he rendered to the United States, inspired me with the 
highest ideas of his talents and worth. As an aid de camp to the 
commander in chief, he saw the principal operations of the main 
army during four years ; but had no command of troops, except of 
a detachment at the siege of Yorktown, with which he stormed and 
took a redoubt. A man of genius, however, will promptly grasp 
any subject; while a common mind is learning the rudiments, 
which, by slow degrees, are to conduct him to the knowledge of it. 
When, therefore, in 1798, a small army was to be raised, in addi- 
tion to our peace establishment, I had no hesitation as to the person 
best qualified to command it. Of the citizens of the United States 
xvho had seen service, I knew not one to place in competition with 
him. It was while I was in this state of mind, that the following 
dialogue took place between Mr. Adams and me. 

Mr. Adams. — " Whom shall we appoint commander in chief?" — 
••' Colonel Hamilton." Mr. Adams made no reply. On another 
day he repeated the same question, and I gave him the same an- 
swer : he did not reply. On another day he for the third time 
asked me, " Whom shall we appoint commander in chief?" and the 
third time I answered, " Colonel Hamilton." " O no !" replied 
Mr. Adams, " it is not his turn by a great deal ; 1 would sooner 
" appoint Gates, or Lincoln, or Morgan." Instantly I rejoined to 
this effect : "• General Morgan is here a member of congress, now 
" very sick, apparently with one foot in the grave: certainly a very 
" brave and meritorious officer, in our revolutionary war ; and per- 
" haps his present sickness may be the consequence of the hard- 
*' ships and sufferings to which he was then subjected ; but, if he 
" were in full health, the command of a brigade would be deemed 
" commensurate with his talents. As for Gates, he is now an old 
" woman ; and Lincoln is always asleep."* Mr. Adams made no 
reply. 

* My remiirk on the militar)' characters of the gentlemen named by Mr. Adams^ 
whom he would prefer to Hamilton for the command of the army, may perhaps be 
thought not quite so respectful to the president of the United States as became the 
dignity of his station. But if it was frankness in excess, it Avill at least show that 
I was not inclined to " mask'' my opinions. My remark was instantaneous, but 
calm. Mr. Adams has totally misrepresented my character. All my life long I 
have been so accustomed freely to express my opinions, that some of my friends 
have occasionally regretted that I was so little reserrcd ; that I did not conceal my 
sentiments, when, though correct, they might give offence ; in a word, that I did 
not sometimes wear a " maslc." — I meant no reproach to Lincoln. His lethargic 
habit was a constitutional infirmity. When I made the winter campaign, in 
1776-7, with the Massachusetts militia under his command, he told me, that prior 
to the war, when he represented the town of Hingham in the legislature, he used 
to ride home (a distance, then, of 16 to 20 miles) every Saturday night, on horse- 
back, and commonly slept half the way. It was easy for him to fall asleep at any 
time, when in a sitting posture. In other respects he was a vigilant officer. But 
at this time he was a cripple from a wound received in the revolutionary war^ ain^ 
of an advanced age. 



113 

Washington being, on this occasion, appointed commander in 
chief, the secretary of war (iM-Henrj) was directed to carry his 
commission to Mount Vernon. Knowing Mr. Adams's aversion to 
Hamilton, and apprehensive that he would either not be called into 
service, or if nominated to any ollice, that it w ould be in a rank so 
much below his merit that he would not and ought not to accept it, 
1 took the liberty of writing to general Washington the following 
letter.* 

^'■Philadelphia, July 6, 1798, 11 o'clock al night. 

"Sir — My attachment to my country, and my desire to promote its best in- 
terests, I trust, have never been equivocal ; and at this time 1 feci extreme 
anxiety that our army should be org-anizud in the most efficient manner. The 
enemy whom we are preparing to encounter, veterans in arms, led by able and 
active officers, and accustomed to victory, must he met by the best blood, talents, 
energ-y and experience that our country can produce. Great military abilities 
are the portion but of few men, in any nation, even the most populous and war- 
like. Flow very iew, then, may we expect to find in the United States I In 
them the arrangements should be so made that not one might be lost. 

" There is one man who will gladly be your second, but who will not, I pre- 
Bume, because I think he ought not to be the second to any other military 
commander in the United States. You too well know colonel Hamilton's dis- 
tinguished ability, energy and fidelity to apply my remark to any other man. 
But to ensure his appointment, I apprehend the weight of your opinion may bo 
necessary. From the conversation that I and others have had with the presi- 
dent, there appears to be a disinclination to place colonel Hamilton in what 
we think is his proper station, and that alone in which we suppose he will 
serve — the Second to 3 ou, and the Chief in your absence. In any %var, aad 
especially in such a war as now impends, a commander in chief ought to know 
and have a confidence in the officers most essential to ensure success to his 
measures. In a late conversation with the president, I took the liberty to ob- 
serve, that the army in question not being yet raised, the only material object 
to be contemplated in the early appointment of the commander in chief would 
be, that he might be consulted, because he ought to be satisfied, in the choice 
of the principal officers who should serve under him. 

" If an}' considerations should prevent your taking the command of the ar- 
my, I deceive myself extremely if you will not think that it should be confer- 
red on colonel Hamilton. And in this case it may be equally necessary, as in 
the former, that you should intimate your opinion to the president. Even 
colonel Hiimilton's political enemies, I believe, would repose more confidence 
in him than in any other military character that can be placed in competition 
with him. 

" This letter is in its nature confidential, and therefore can procure me the 
displeasure of no one : but the appointment of colonel Hamilton, in the man- 
ner suggested, appears to me of such vast importance to the welfare of the 
country, that I am willing to risk any consequences of my frank and honest 
endeavours to secure it. On this ground I assure myself you will pardon the 
freedom of this address. I am, with perfect respect, 

Sir, your most obedient servant, 

TIMOTHY PICKERING. 

" P. S. Mr. M'Henry is to set off to-morrow, or on Monday, bearing your 
commission. 

" General Washinsrton." 



* I desire it may be noticed, that when I wrote this letter, I had had no sort of 
communication with Hamilton on the subject : it was a spontaneous act on my 
part to secure his services to the country. 

16 



114 

To this letter, I was favoured with a long and confidential answer, 
dated July 1 1, in which the general went into a consideration of the 
kind of warfare to be expected, in case of an invasion by the French, 
and to which the military arrangements should have relation. The 
following paragraph is the only one 1 feel at liberty to introduce; 
and this, because important in justification of my conduct on the 
occasion. 

" Of the abilities and fitness of the gentleman you have named for a hig-h 
command in the provisional army, I tl)ink as j'on do, and that his services ought 
to be secured at almost any price. What the difficulties are that present them- 
selves to the mind of the president, irt opposition to this measure, I am entirely 
ignorant ; but in corifidence, and with the frankness 3'ou have disclosed your 
own sentiments on this occasion, I will unfold mine, under the view I have 
taken of the prospect before us ; and shall do it concisely." 

I was also happy in finding my ideas on this subject coincident 
with those of Mr. Jay, who was then governor of New- York. In 
his letter to me, dated July 18, 1798, he said, " Being of the num- 
" ber of those who expect a severe war with France the momtnt she 
^'' makes peace with Britain, I feel great anxiety that nothing may be 
"omitted to prepare for it;" — and then, glancing at the kind of 
generals we should have to contend with, Mr. Jay proceeded — 
" I cannot conceal from you my solicitude that the late secretary 
" of the treasury" [Hamilton] " may be brought forward in a man- 
" ner corresponding with his talents and services. It appears to 
*' me that his former military station and character, ttiken in con- 
" nexion with his late important place in the administration, would 
*' justify measuring his rank by his merit and value." 

The unexampled insults and injuries inflicted by France on the 
government and people of the United States, as herein before de- 
scribed, were sufficient, an impartial observer would suppose, to 
rouse the spirit of every American citizen to a determined resist- 
ance, and to repel force by force. But this unhappily was not the 
case: many of our citizens appeared more inclined to criminate 
their own government than that of France. There was, however, 
a decided majority well disposed to provide the means of protect- 
ing our commerce, and defending our country. Our treaties Avith 
France, grossly violated on her part, ceased to be obligatory on 
the United States ; and congress declared them to be void. Naval 
hostilities were authorized by an act of congress, for the purpose of 
capturing all French armed vessels. Several of these were taken ; 
and our commerce received protection. 

In this state of things, apprehensions were entertained that a 
formal war with France mipht ensue. A peace between her and 
England, for which the party (with the celebrated Mr. Fox at its 
head) in opposition to the government, were zealously contending, 
would remove the only obstructiort to an invasion of our country 
by a French fleet and army. Under these circumstances, a pru- 
dent foresight justified and required the raising of a small army, as 



115 

a suitable preparatory measure of defence. It would be a nucleus, 
around which, should it become necessary, additional forces might 
be collected, to whom the previous training of the former would 
facilitate the speedy acquisition of the knowledge of discipline, to 
qualify them for actual service. Accordingly, congress authorized 
the raising of twelve regiments of infantry and six troops of caval- 
ry, in addition to the small peace establishment. But the same 
party in our country, which had before steadily opposed the feder- 
al administration, resisted the present measure. Indeed, no incon- 
siderable portion of our citizens appeared willing to make any 
sacriiice to France, although at the expense of the honour as well 
as the interests of their own country. For this reason, especially, 
it was deemed expedient to place in the command of the army its 
most popular military citizen ; and on Washington it was accord- 
ingly conferred. This policy was doubtless correct. But, for 
myself, 1 thought only of that man of eminent talents who had been 
in service during nearly the whole of our revolutionary war, and 
the greater part of the time in general Washington's military fami- 
ly : this was colonel Hamilton. I knew Washington's advanced 
age, and his strong predilection for a retired and rural life. He 
had himself avowed it. I knew that so long before as 1783, when 
he resigned to congress his military commission, he manifested a 
determination never again to appear in office on the national thea- 
tre.* And after he retired from the presidency, I had not contem- 
plated any future crisis in the affairs of our country, which would 
render it ])roper to interrupt his repose, and call him from that re- 
tirement to the field. t 

The secretary of war, when charged with Washington's commis- 
sion, was instructed by the president to consult the general as to 
the principal officers to be appointed to the army ; and he trans- 
mitted, from Mount Vernon, by the mail, the generaPs list, contain- 
ing the names of gentlemen who had served in the revolutionary 
army, and designated the stalions in which they should be placed. 
At the head of this list, and in the following order, were the names of 

Alexander Hamilton, inspector general and major general; 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckncy, major general ; 

Henry Knox, major general. 
And in this order they were nominated to the senate. When the 
nominations were taken up for consideration, some of the senators, 
who knew Mr. Adams's antipathy to Hamilton, proposed (as I was 

* '' I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of 
" public life," were his words. Congress Journal, Dec. 23, 1783. 

t How distressing it was to him to be called forth at the period here referred to, 
cannot be more forcibly expressed than in his own words : " If a crisis should ar- 
" rive, when a sense of duty, or a call from my country, should become so imperi- 
" ous r<s to leave me no choice, I should prepare for relinquishment, and g-o with as 
" much reluctance from my present peaceful abode, as I should go to the tombs of 
^'my ancestors."— Letter from the general in answer to col. Ilamilton's ofMay 19, 
1798, in Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. v. p. 748. 



116 

at the time informed) that they should act on the nomination of 
Hamilton, and postpone their decision on the other two till the next 
day ; lest, if all were approved on the same day, in which case all 
their commissions would bear the same date, Mr. Adams should 
derange that order, and raise Pinckney and Knox above Hamilton. 
But it was answered, that it was the constant usage,* that persons 
nominated and approved, on the same day, to the same grade of 
office, should take the rank in the order in which they were nomi- 
nated and approved ; and that surely Mr. Adams would not violate 
that established rule. So the senate approved of all the three 
nominations on the same day.t 

For some cause or other — I supposed under the impulse of the 
irritation occasioned by the negative put by the senate on his son- 
in-law. Col. Smhh, as before related — Mr. Adams very suddenly, 
and without apprising the heads of departments of his intention, 
pushed off for Quincy, the place of his residence near Boston ; 
leaving his " incompetent secretaries"! at the seat of government, 
to perform, besides the ordinary executive duties, those arising from 
the acts of the very important session of congress just ended. 
There was at that time no navy department ; and the issuing of 
commissions of letters of marque had been assigned to the depart- 
ment of state. These being prepared, I went to the president's 
house, by nine in the morning (the day I do not recollect) to obtain 
his signature ; when, to my astonishment, his steward informed me 
that he had already set otf for Quincy. 1 hastened back to my office, 
made up a packet of blank commissions, and forwarded them by 
mail to Nev/ York, to the care of one of his sons then living in that 
city. There the packet came to the president's hands. He signed 
the commissions and returned them to me. But this caused a delay 
of two or three days, when a number of merchant vessels, in dif- 
ferent ports, armed and manned for letters of marque, and ready 
for sea, were waiting for their commissions. 

The secretary of war made out the commissions for Hamilton 
first, Pinckney second, and Knox third, major general, and sent 
them to Quincy, for the president's signature. He wrote to the 
secretary, that in his opinion Knox was entitled to rank as first 
major general, Pinckney as the second, and Hamilton as the third; 
and directed, that if general Washington should concur in that 
opinion, he should conform the commissions to that order. Pos- 
sessed of tliis information, and having already interested myself to 
secure to Hamilton the first place after the commander in chief, 1 
addressed, on the first of September, a second letter to Washing- 

* Grounded on a resolve of the old congress, January 4, 1776. 

+ Congress had already adjourned, and the senators, impatient to depart, re- 
mained in session only to pass on the military nominations. It was then the mid- 
dle of July. 

:j: Such, I remember to have been informed, was the term by which he sometimss 
designated the heads of departments. 



117 

ton ; in which I examined at large the alleged reasons for giving 
Knox the precedence, and demonstrated (as 1 thought) their inva- 
lidity. The general honoured me with his answer, dated the 9th. 
It was a long letter, in relation to the new army. The following 
extracts, pointing most directly to the present subject, are all that I 
need introduce. 

" Your private letter of the first instant came duly to hand, and I heg jou 
to be persuaded that no apology will ever be necessary for any confidential 
communications you may be disposed to entrust me with. 

" In every public transaction of my life, mj^ aim has been to do that which 
appeared to me to be most conducive to its weal. Keeping this object always 
in view, no local considerations, or private gratifications, incompatible there- 
with, can ever render information displeasing to me from those in whom I 
have confidence, and who, I know, have the best opportunities of acquiring a 
knowledge of facts in matters which may be interesting to our country, and 
essential for myself as its servant. 

" Having troubled you with this exordium and egotism, I do not only thank 
3'ou for the full and judicious observations relative to the discontents of gen- 
eral Knox, at being appointed junior major general in the augmented corps, 
but I shall do the same for your further occasional remarks on this, or any 
other subject which may be interesting and proper for me to know ; that I 
may thereby regulate my own conduct in such a manner as to render it bene- 
ficial and acceptable to the community, in matters which depend on correct 
information not in mj^ power to obtain in the ordinary course, without aid." 

The general then mentions his early writing to general Knox, 
stating the prmciplc upon which the arrangement of the major gen- 
erals had been made ; and that he was not a little surprised to find 
in his answer an expression of great dissatisfaction at the measure. 
General Washington replied, in order to conciliate Knox ; but in 
vain. 

Before the secretary of war could have written to and received 
an answer from general Washington, respecting the order in which 
the three major generals should take rank, another letter was re- 
ceived from the president, peremptorily requiring him to make out 
their commissions in the order of Knox, Pinckney, Hamilton. 
Upon which I again wrote to general Washington. .The subse- 
quent decisive proceeding on his part finally induced the president 
(certainly to his extreme mortification) to recur to the old rule, 
from which he ought never to have departed ; and the commissions 
were made out according to the general's arrangement. The presi- 
dent's departure from it was a violation of the general condition on 
which Washington accepted the chief command. 

Several motives for this incorrect conduct of president Adams 
maybe assigned. Primarily, his unrelenting haired of Hamilton ; 
whom, utterly regardless of the public interest in his services, he 
would have driven from the army, by degrading him from the 
rank to which his merit and actual appointment entitled him. In 
the next place, he would have expected from Knox a degree of 
subserviency to his views which was net to be expected from Ham- 



118 

ikon. Lastly, he had received from Knox a flattering letter, ex- 
pressing his unqualified admiration of the president's measures. 
And to a man of Mr. Adams's unbounded vanity, nothing could be 
so grateful, nothing so influential, as flattery, hi this letter, Knox 
suggested a variety of measures, and on a liberal scale, which he 
thought should be taken, eflectually to resist and defeat an inva- 
sion by the French; and he concluded with a tender of his humble, 
obililies for any sort of service to which they should be thovfihl equal.* 

After such an expression of the humble sense of his own abili- 
ties, and of his readiness to serve in any station to which they 
should be deemed adequate, it must surprise every one to find that 
his humility was offended because he was not placed above all other 
officers, Washington only excepted : but such was the fact ; and 
for that reason he refused to serve at all. In a letter to me, general 
Knox said, '' The present view of the subject is, that Mr. Hamil- 
" ton's talents have been estimated upon a scale of comparison so 
" transcendent, that all his seniors in rank and years of the late 
*' army have been degraded by his elevation. Whether this esti- 
'' mate has been perfectly correct, or whether the consequences 
"will be for the happiness of the coimtry, time will discover." 

It is the more remarka1>le that Knox should insist on the first 
rank as a major general, seeing the arrangement had been made 
by general Washington, for whom he always manifested the most 
profound respect ; and the general always appeared to me to en- 
tertain towards Knox a peculiar and very strong attachment. In 
a letter to Hamilton, in reference to the arrangement of him and 
Pinckncy, Washington said, " With respect to my friend general 
" Knox, whom I love and esteem, I have ranked him below you 
" both." If there was in the revolutionary army but one officer 
whom he loved^ Knox was that one. In this case we see exempli- 
fied the sentiment expressed to me by the general in his letter of 
Sept. 9, before quoted — That in every public transaction of his lifc^ 
the public weal^ and not private gratifications^ governed him. No per- 
son acquainted with Hamilton and Knox could hesitate a moment 
in deciding to whom the preference was due. 

Mr. Adams has been unwearied in his attempts to degrade Hamil- 
ton in the eyes of his fellow-citizens : he has been so indiscreet as 
to deny him, what all the world besides allow him, very eminent 
talents. According to Mr. Adams, his son-in-law col. Smith, in the 
military line, was much superior to Hamilton : and having, in many 
letters published in the Boston Patriot in 1809, labouring to vindi- 
cate the mission to France instituted in 1799, commented on various 
passap-es of Hamilton's letter of 1800, when Adams was a second 
lime a candidate for the presidency, he concludes his 16th letter 
with these words : " 1 have no more to say on this great subject. 

* I have a copy of this letter, taken from Uie original, which, by Mr. Adams's 
direction, I deposited in the ivar-rffice. 



119 

" Indeed I am weary of exposing puerilities that would disgrace 
" the awkwardest boy at college.'" After this shot, the following 
comparison of Mr. Gerry and Hamilton, as financiers, will occa- 
sion no surprise. 

In his 13th letter, dated May 29, 1809, published in the Boston 
Patriot, Mr. Adams, speaking of his favourite, Gerry, as one of the 
ministers to negotiate with the French republic, against whom he 
supposes prejudices had been entertained, says, " No man had a 
" greater share in propagating and diiiusing these prejudices against 
*' Mr. Gerry than Hamilton ; rvhether he had formerly conctived jea- 
" lousics against him as a rival candidate for the secretaryship of the 
" treasury^- for Mr. Gerry was a financier, and had been employed 
" for years on the treasury in the old congress, and a most inde- 
" fatigable member too :' — " that committee had laid the founda- 
" tion for the present system of the treasury, and had organized it 
" almost as well :" — " I knew that the oflicers of the treasury, in 
" Hamilton's time, dreaded to see him rise in the house upon any 
" question of finance, because they said he was a man of so much 
" influence, that they always feared he would discover some error, 
" or carry some point against them : — or whether he [Hamilton] 
" feared that Mr. Gerry would be president of the United States 
" before him, I know not." ! ! ! 

It appears by Cunningham's letters to Mr. Adams, that the latter 
had written two concerning Hamilton, filled with matters of such a 
character that he would not leave them in Cunningham's hands ; he 
insisted on their being returned to him, and they were returned : 
but their contents are intimated in Cunningham's answers. The 
accusations are of atrocious vices. One, that Hamilton was totally 
destitute oi integrity. The whole of the world where Hamilton was 
known will acquit "him of this charge, and with scorn repel the foui 
calumny. And every reader of'this Review will have seen the 
licentiousness of Mr. Adams's pen, and hov/ little credit is due to 
any of his statements concerning those who are the subjects of his 
envy, hatred or revenge. 

In Cunningham's letter XXXVII, to Mr. Adams, dated May 6, 
1809, he sta'tcs, that Mr. Adams informed him, that the testimony 
of general Washington in Hamilton's favour was given under a 
threatening of a public exposure of his n^istakes. " You, sir^ know," 
says Cunningham, " what authority I have for the declaration — 
''general Washington was overawed with a menace." In a note 
Cunningham adds, " Mr. Adams is my authority for all this, and 
more." Every man who knevv- Washington will pronounce this, 
whoever might be the author, an atrocious falsehood. In the con- 
scious purity of intention in all his actions, while he entertained a 
modest opinion of himself, he would not have endured such an in- 
sult from any human being ; and all who knew Hamilton will pro- 
nounce him utterly incapable of offering it. 



120 

Here I conclude all that I think proper for me to say respecting 
Mr. Hamilton, in regard to Mr. Adams's reproaches, in his corres- 
pondence with Cunningham. His animadversions on Hamilton, in 
his letters published in the same year (1809) in the Boston Patriot, 
which occupy nearly fifty pages in octavo, so far as the same may 
merit any notice, will have the attention of Hamilton's biographer. 
That the work is not yet commenced, or in progress, is a subject of 
deep regret. 

But as Hamilton has formerly been accused of cherishing highly 
aristocratic views of government, and, as a member of the general 
convention which formed the constitution of the United States, would 
have infused that spirit into it, 1 subjoin his letter to me on that 
subject. It is an answer to one I wrote to him, stating that it had 
been asserted, " that in the general convention he had proposed, 
" that the president of the United Slates^ and the senators, should be 
**• chosen for life ; and that his accusers alleged that this was intend- 
" ed as an introduction to monarchy." On this accusation I made 
the following remark : " If the proposition was offered in the con- 
" vention, your friends will know to what motives to ascribe it; 
" and that, whatever form of government you may have suggested 
" for consideration, the public welfare, and the permanent liberty of 
" your country, were not the less olijects of pursuit with you, than 
" with the other members of the convention." On this subject 1 
requested information. 

Hamilton's answer is too valuable to be lost. By introducing it 
into this Review, it may be preserved long enough to be used by 
his biographer, while in the mean time it will gratify surviving 
friends who deeply respect his memory. I give it here, verbatim, 
from the original now before me. 

" A'ew-York, September 16, 1803. 

" Mj' Dear Sir, — I will make no apolog-j' for m}- delay in answering- your in- 
quiry some time since made, because 1 could offer none wiiich would satisfy 
myself. I pray you only to believe that it proceeded from any thing rather 
than want of respect or rcg-ard. I shall now comply with your request. 

" The highest toned propositions, which I made in the convention, were for 
a president, senate and judg-cs during good behaviour — a house of representa- 
tives for three years. Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of 
the general government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the state 
governments; but, on the contrary, they were, in some particulars, constituent 
parts of my plan. 

" This plan was in my conception conformable with the strict theory of a 
government purely republican ; the essential criteria of which are, that the 
principal organs of the executive and legislative departments be elected by 
the people, and hold their offices by a responsible and temporary or defeasible 
tenure. 

" A vote was taken on the proposition respecting the executive. Five 
states were in favour of it; among these Virginia; and though from the man- 
ner of voting, by delegations, individuals were not distinguished, it was moral- 
ly certain, from the known situation of the Virginia members (six in number, 
two of them, Mason and Randolph, professing popular doctrines) that Madison 
must have concurred in the vote of Virginia. Thus, if I sinned against repub- 
licanism, Mr. Madison was not less guilty. 



121 

" I may truly then say, that I never proposed either a president, or senate, 
for life ; and that I neither recommended nor meditated the annihilation of the 
state governments. 

" And I may add, that in the course of the discussions in the convention, 
neither the propositions thrown out for debate, nor even those voted in the 
earlier stages of deliberation, were considered as evidences of a definitive 
opinion in the proposer or voter. It appeared to me to be in some sort under- 
stood, that with a view to free investigation, experimental propositions might 
be made, whicli were to be received merely as suggestions for consideration. 

" Accordingly it is a fact, that my final opinion was against an executive 
during good behaviour, on account of the increased danger to the public tran- 
quillity incident to the election of a magistrate of this degree of permanency. 
In the plan of a constitution, which 1 drew up while the convention was sitting, 
and which I communicated to Mr. Madison about the close of it, perhaps a day 
or two after, the oflSce of President has no greater duration than for three 
years. 

" This plan was predicated upon these bases. 1. That the political princi- 
ples of the people of this country would endure nothing but republican govern- 
ments. 2. That, in the actual situation of the countr}', it was in itself right 
and proper that the republican theorj- should have a fair and full trial. 3. That 
to such a trial it was essential that the government should be so constructed as 
to give it all the energy and stability reconcileable with the principles of that 
theory. These were the genuine sentiments of my heart, and upon them I 
acted. 

" I sincerely hope, that it may not hereafter be discovered, that through 
want of sufficient attention to the last idea, the experiment of republican gov- 
ernment, even in this country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory and 
as decisive as could be wished. 

" Very truly, dear sir, your friend and servant, • 

. " Timothy Pickerikg, Esa.''' A. HAMILTON." 



SECTION VII. 

WASHINGTON. 

In this review of Mr. Adams's Correspondence with Cunning- 
ham — passing by many things of minor consequence — I have notic- 
ed nearly all of his principal reproaches ; and shown, 1 trust satis- 
factorily, that they are calumnies, and calumnies of the most dis- 
graceful kind ; that, in his laboured attempts to justify some im- 
portant acts of his administration, he has manifested as little regard 
to truth as to consistency ; and that those acts, which he solemnly 
avers were dictated solely by a sincere and virtuous regard to the 
public welfare, originated in his unrestrained ambition. — There re- 
main to be noticed two accusations in his letter, No. XVII, Novem- 
ber 25, 1808, to Cunningham, where, referring to me, he says, " No 
" man I ever knew had so deep a contempt for Washington. I 
" have had numerous proofs of it from his own lips; yet he appears 
" to the world a devout adorer of him.''— This charge, in every part, 
I deny. From Mr. Adams's character, as portrayed in this Review, 
cverv impartial reader will see that his accusations can derive no 
credit from his assertions ; that he is capable of making the gross- 

17 



122 

est misrepresentations ; and from detached facts, and often from 
bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable inferences, if suited to 
his purposes at the moment. Some such facts, relating to Washing- 
ton, he may have heard me mention, though 1 have no recollection 
of it ; for those, to which I here refer, were such as entered into 
occasional conversations between myself and my friends. But 
whatever they were, the inference of " contempt" is all his own ; 
and perfectly natural, because corresponding whh his own feelings ; 
as in the instance of which his friend Cunningham reminds him, in 
his letter, No. LX, January 15, 1810, saying, " In the letter, from 
" which 1 have extracted, you observed, that the portrait of JVash- 
" ingion ought not to shove aside the portraits of John Hancock and 
" Samuel Adams, in Fanueil Hall. Now, to say nothing of Samuel 
" Adams, what was John Hancock ? I will tell you what you your- 
" self once said of him. In the afternoon of a day in the summer 
" of 1791, some conversation respecting him led Mrs. Adams to re- 
" mark, that he was born near your residence — you turned yourself 
*' towards your front door, and pointing to a spot in view, you laugh- 
" ingly exclaimed, 'Yes! there's the place where the great gover- 
" nor Hancock was born.' Then, composing your countenance, and 
" rolling your eye, you went on with these exclamations — ' John 
"Hancock! a man without head and without heart — the mere 
" shadow of a man, and yet a governor of old Massachusetts !' " — 
In his answer to this letter, the next day, without questioning the 
truth of Cunningham's statement, Mr. Adams says, "The corres- 
" pondence and conversations which have passed between us have 
" been under the confidential seal of secrecy and friendship. Any 
" violation of it will be a breach of honour and of plighted faith." 
Other like instances of Mr. Adams's expressed opinion of Wash- 
ington have come to my knowledge. Yet in official acts, speeches, 
messages and letters, he was willing to derive to himself some credit 
as his eulogist. 

The " facts" to which I have alluded were military occurrences 
in the revolutionary war, which fell under my own observation, and 
which produced an opinion, on some points of his character, in coin- 
cidence with what / know, from their own observations to me, were 
the opinions of general Greene and baron Steuben ; with what I 
have indubitable reason to know was the opinion of Hamilton ; and 
also of colonel Reed, adjutant general in 1776, and afterwards 
president of Pennsylvania. To some of these facts and opinions 
I have occasionally adverted, when I have heard every military 
enterprise of moment, during the revolutionary war, ascribed ex- 
clusively to Washington ; and when the salvation of our country 
and the establishment of its independence have been attributed 
to him alone. In these unlimited views concerning Washington I 
have not concurred. I never believed that the effectual defence of 
our country, and the final achievement of its independence, rested 
on any one man. Had this been the case, resistance to the mother 



123 

country would have been madness. Yet I have always thought, 
and said, that, as the chief command of our armies should be en» 
trusted only to a native citizen, Washington, above all others, was 
entitled to the preference. 

There had been no military school in the colonies, where natives 
might learn the art of war ; nor any occasion or opportunity for 
colonists to acquire a practical knowledge of it, excepting in the 
French or seven years' war, which was declared in 1756, and ended 
in 1 763. In that war, numerous provincial forces were employed 
in conjunction with British regular troops; but only for single cam- 
paigns, and as militia, engaged to serve from spring to autumn. 
And all these transient services ended with the conquest of Canada, 
in 1759 and 60, which gave peace to our frontiers. The frontiers 
of Virginia, harassed by Indian incursions from 1754, when Wash- 
ington commanded the levies of that province, were quieted in 
1758 ; in which year, British troops and colonial militia drove the 
French from the Ohio. And, at the close of that year, Washington 
resigned his commission. By his services in that war, he had ac- 
quired much military reputation ; and his whole life, marked with 
eminent qualities, left him without a competitor for the chief com- 
mand, at the commencement of our revolutionary war. Through 
the whole course of it, he served with a pure and disinterested zeal, 
fortitude and magnanimity^ that were never surpassed in any cause ; 
and amidst difficulties and discouragements that perhaps 7ve7-e never 
equalled. Such a character no one could view with " contempt." 
In what, then, have I differed from any others, in regard to Wash- 
ington ? I frankly answer — that I did not ascribe to him transcen- 
dent talents as well as transcendent virtues. These, combined, 
would constitute a character that has rarely if ever existed. 
Washington, far from assuming, uniformly disclaimed it ; both when 
he accepted the command of the army in 1775, and when he re- 
ceived the presidency of the United States in 1 789. In these two 
great acts, deliberately contemplated, and performed with the deep- 
est anxiety, it was manifested, that the highest public employments 
not being with him objects of ambition, he relinquished the pursuits 
and endearments of private life, purely in obedience to the voice 
of his country, to whose service all his faculties were ever devoted. 
With such feelings, and a painful apprehension of the great res- 
ponsibility attached to those offices, to accept of them raised still 
higher his character of exalted patriotism. He consented to hazard 
his reputation, at momentous crises, when his numerous judicious 
friends, on whose fidelity and correct opinions he had just reason to 
rely, assured him that the public voice, as well as the public wel- 
fare, demanded the sacrifice of all private considerations. 

My general views of Washington's character coincide with those 
of some who had frequent and intimate opportunities of knowing 
it, and of some of our most judicious public writers. Among all 
the cotemporarics of Washington, no man had more or better (I 



124 

may say no one had equal) opportunities of knowing Washington, 
than Alexander Hamilton ; and I presume it will be admitted, that 
no man was more competent to form a correct judgment of his char- 
actei-. For more than four years, Hamilton was an important 
member of general Washington's military family, in the revolution- 
ary war; and six years secretary of the treasury, when Washing- 
ton was president of the United States ; and his constant corres- 
pondent during the rest of his life. Hamilton was too just to 
detract, and too sincere to flatter. In his well known Letter on the 
Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, he mentions ''.the 
" incomparably superior weight and transcendent popularity of 
" general Washington" — " the venerated Washington*' — " the mod- 
" est and sage Washington" — " the virtuous and circumspect 
" Washington" — " the dead patriot and hero, the admired and be- 
" loved Washington." In the same letter, contrasting the precipi- 
tation of president Adams with the deliberate judgment of Wash- 
ington, he says of the latter, " He consulted much, pondered much, 
" resolved slowly, resolved surely." And in his letter, consequent 
on his resignation of the treasury department, in answer to a " very 
" kind" one from Washington, Hamilton says, "I entreat you to be 
" persuaded (not the less for my having been sparing of professions) 
" that I shall never cease to render a just tribute to those eminent 
"and excellent qualities which have been already productive of so 
" many blessings to your country."* 

1 will close my observations respecting Washington with the 
opinion of that well informed and judicious historian, the late Dr. 
David Ramsay. In his history of the American Revolution, he 
writes thus of Washington: " Possessed of a large proportion of 
" common sense directed by a sound judgment, he was better fitted 
*' for the exalted station to which he was called, than many others 
*' who to greater brilliancy of parts frequently add the eccentricity 
" of original genius." — " His soul, superiour to party spirit, to pre- 
"judice and illiberal views, moved according to the impulses it re- 
*' ceived from an honest heart, a good understanding, common 
*' sense, and a sound judgment."! 

To the correctness of these views of Washington's character, by 
Hamilton and Ramsay, I give my cordial assent; while I deny the 
other part of Mr. Adams's assertion, that " I appeared to the world 
" a devout adorer of him." In truth, I never adored any man ; I 
never flattered any man ; and I never attempted to appear what I was 
not; choosing rather to hazard giving oftence, than to practise any 
sort of prevarication. 

In the same letter. No. XVII, and immediately following the 
preceding charge, Mr. Adams says of me, " No man was a more 
" animated advocate for the French ; yet now he is as zealous for 

• Marshall's Life of Washington, Tol. V, appendix, p. 28. 
t Vol. i. p. 217. 



125 

" the English." As to the former, at the commencement of their 
revolution, my sentiments corresponded with those of my fellow- 
citizens generally; rejoicing in the prospect of their establishing a 
free governm.ent, in the place of an unlimited monarchy. To this 
sentiment there were very (cw exceptions in the United States. But, 
in the progress of the revolution, the unexampled atrocities commit- 
ted at Paris and in other parts of France excited my abhorrence. 
When at length order was restored, and a republican government 
was formed, with "checks and balances" which authorized a hope 
of its permanent establishment, I again rejoiced. But when this 
new government swerved from republican principles; when its acts 
were a continued and extensive exhibition of tyranny, injustice and. 
corruption ; and especially when these evil dispositions were mani- 
fested in unexampled injuries and insults towards the United States 
and their government, the French rulers, and those who executed 
their commands, were to me objects of horror and detestation. 
The honour, under these circumstances, of having continued to 
cherish French attachments, I cheerfully leave to those who were 
ambitious of it, and to their new adherents. 

AVith regard to the English, my opposition to their claims, during 
our controversies with their government, and in the war which suc- 
ceeded, was constant and uniform. When our independence was 
established, and peace proclaimed, m}'' enmity ceased. To indulge 
the sentiment in the declaration of independence, " to hold them, 
" as we should hold the rest of mankind. Enemies in War — in Peace^ 
" Friends'''' — accorded as well with my inclination as my duty. 
Without such a temper among the people of any country, and es- 
pecially in its rulers, permanent peace cannot be expected. Mr. 
Adams, in his public letters, takes credit to himself as a friend to 
peace ; and, with some ostentation, repeats, as if it were a maxim 
peculiar to himself, or at least not common, that he always held a 
state of neutrality to be the true policy and the great interest of the 
United States ; yet in various places he utters sentiments tending 
to engender hostilities with England. Such, no doubt, appeared to 
him to be the prevalent feeling of his old opponents, the adherents 
of Mr. Jefferson, with whom he and his son had coalesced. In his 
letter No. XXVI, February 11, 1809, to Cunningham, he pronoun- 
ces " Great Britain to be the natural enemy of the United States." 
Yet our commercial intercourse with that country is of greater in- 
terest to the United States than that with any other country on the 
globe. It was that intercourse which rapidly enriched our southern 
and western states, the growers of cotton ; and it will continue to 
add to their wealth and comforts, if not interrupted or embarrassed 
by our own impolitic restraints. But its benefits are not confined 
to the cotton-growing states ; they extend to every state in the 
union. A new reason now urges the United States to maintain a 
friendly connexion with Great Britain : Hers is the only free and 
independent country in Europe ; and Ours the only other country 



120 

in the World in a condition to co-operate with Britain in sustaining 
the cause of liberty on the Earth. 

If for entertaining such sentiments as these I shall be visited 
with reproaches, let them come — I am willing to bear them. 



CONCLUSION. 

Many have exclaimed with horror at the breach of faith which, 
has brought to light the Correspondexcf, between Mr. Adams and 
his friend Cunningham ; and they concentrate their reproaches on 
the head of the son who has given it to the public. But what is 
the real cause of all this horror? Suppose another person had 
communicated to Cunningham, ingenious dissertations in philoso- 
phy, in morals, or in religion, or the animated etFusions of a heart 
warmed with benevolence, but which the modest and retiring au- 
thor would venture to impart only to a bosom friend, and especial- 
ly not to be made public during the writer's life; and suppose this 
friend struck with the beauties and excellencies of the composi- 
tions, and convinced of their utility, if made known ; would the dis- 
closure of them, by the anticipation of a few years, be thought an 
unpardonable crime? On the contrary, would it not be deemed a 
very venial fault? Who would have regretted the opportunity, 
thus afforded, to bestow on the modest author present instead of post- 
humous praise, which all would pronounce his due, and which 
even he, now entirely satisfied of the merit of his work, could him- 
self enjoy ? 

But what is the character of the " Correspondence ?" — An exhi- 
bition of the worst passions of the human heart. To the horror- 
struck censors of the publisher I would say. You think only of the 
once high standing of Mr. Adams ; you see him venerable in years ; 
you read his name associated with some of the most interesting 
periods of our history, and at length honoured with the highest 
office our national institutions will admit. All these recollections 
rush upon the mind, and you are unwilling to loosen the hold they 
have on your heart. If it were possible, you would shut your 
eyes against the atrocious calumnies flowing through his pen, and 
so deeply derogating from the character you have been accustomed 
to contemplate with delight, and to which you have rendered the 
grateful homage of your hearts. You are shocked with this new 
view of his character ; but, at the same time, mortified and vexed 
at the discovery, you pass by the real offender, and pour all your 
resentment, and expressions of accumulated horror, on the head of 
the person who has published, a little prematurely^ the monstrous 
calumnies which the venerable author had himself prepared for 
the press. It will be seen, by the note hereto subjoined, that these 
letters were in truth intended as the posthumous work of president 



127 

Adams ; and the publisher has done no more than to anticipate, by 
perhaps a year or two, its publication ; thereby giving me, what 
the writer intended to prevent, the opportunity of defending myself 
during the joint lives of us both.* 

1 have now brought to a close my Review of the Correspon- 
dence between Mr. Adams and his relative and friend William 
Cunningham. In my own defence I have been constrained to ex- 
amine freely his communications. If faults of a deep die appear, 
let it be considered, that I only write their history ; anrl, upon the 
strictest scrutiny of what I have written, I have discerned no er- 
rors. Should any be discovered, I shall readily acknowledge and 
retract them. Some persons may regret this exhibition of the 
character of Mr. Adams. Such kind hearts should rather wish 
that he had not himself created the occasion, and rendered it an 
imperious duty to myself and children, to my friends and to truth, 
lo vindicate my reputation so wantonly assailed. In performing 
this just act of self-defence, it was impossible to avoid the exhibi- 
tion I have made of the character of the accuser. If I thus expose 
his faults to the rvorld, I at the same time expose them to himself; 
in which view, it may be a work of real usefulness. It may excite 
just reflections ; he may become sensible that he has too long given 
the reins to his unhallowed passions. With such a temper, and so 
indulged, will he, on this exposure, have no compunctious feelings? 
Whatever censure may rest on the publisher of the Correspon- 
dence, a heavier censure must fall on him who furnished the matter 
for the publication. It is, as I have remarked, this mutter, black 
with every evil passion, which has excited horror. It is the author, 
rioting on the characters of the men whom he sacrificed to those 
passions, that ought to be the real source of horror. Should he be 
shocked, by this exhibition of his own work, it may produce hu- 
mility and contrition — Christian virtues, and the indispensable con- 
ditions of forgiveness at that Tribunal where the specious but empty- 
pardon of any fellow mortal will be of no avail. For myself, 
wronged as I have been by Mr. Adams, I ask nothing at his hands. 
1 am now alike indiflcrent to his praise and his reproach. To me, 
he is an object, not of resentment, but of pity. 

* Mr. Adams commenced his reproaches ag:ainst me in his letter of Oct. 15, 1808, 
but enjoined secrecy, in these words : " What I have said is to remain in your own 
"breast. I have no disposition to enter into newspaper controversies with Picker- 
'' ing', or his friends or editors." In his next letter, Nov. 7, he qualifies his injunc- 
tion : " I shall insist that whatever 1 write to you upon the subject shall be confi- 
'■'■ denticil as long as I lire.'''' Mr. Adams then proceeds to 2-ive full scope to his 
malevolence, and continues to vent his calumnies until the 7th of June, 1809 — a 
period of seven months ; certainly with the expectation and design, that after his 
death they should be viade public — to illustrate his oun character — and to doom mint 
to perpetual infamy. 



APPENDIX* 

NOTE A. — Extracts from the pamphlet called " The Prospect before Us^^^ 

exhibiting some of the calumnies against Presidents Washington and 

Adams, by James Thompson Callender ; referred to in page 10. 

" I NOW return to the tremor of 1787, by which the 'government of 
your own choice,'^ the federal constitution, was crammed down the gullet 
of America."* 

" By his own account, therefore, Mr. Washington has been twice a 
traitor. He first renounced the king of England, and thereafter the 
old confederation." 

" The extravagant popularit}' possessed by this citizen,! reflects the 
utmost ridicule on the discernment of America. He approved of the 
funding system, the assumption, the national bank ; and, in contradic- 
tion to his own solemn promise, he authorized the I'obbery and ruin of 
the remnants of his own army." 

" Under the old confederation, matters never were, nor could have 
been, conducted so wretchedly as they actually are and have been 
under the successive monarchs of Braintree and Mount Vernon."]; 

" Mr. Washington was president of this federal convention : of course 
he could not plead ignorance of its intention against the erection of a 
national bank. He swore to support the constitution. Directly after, 
he ratified the bank law, which drove the ploughshare of paper job- 
bing through the very midst of his double oath, as a federal citizen, 
and as president." 

" For all this confusion and iniquity, we must thank Mr. Washington." 

" If Mr. Washington wanted to corrupt the American judges, he could 
not have taken a more decisive step, than by the appointment of Mr. Jay. 

" The proclamation of neutrality does not, therefore, deserve that 
title. It was a proclamation of ignorance and pusillanimity." 

" Adams and Washington have since been shaping a series of these 
paper-jobbers into judges and ambassadors. As their whole courage 
lies in want of shame, these poltroons, without risking a manly and 
intelligible defence of their own measures, raise an affected yelp against 
the corruption of the French directory ; as if any corruption could be 
more venal, more notorious, more execrated, than their own. For 
years together, the United States resounded with curses against 
them, while the grand lama of federal adoration, the immaculate divini- 
ty of Mount Vernon, approved of and subscribed every one of their 
blackest measures." 

" This speech has a charm that completely unmasks the scandalous 
hypocrisy of Washington." 

" Mr. Adams has only completed the scene of ignominy which Mr. 
W^ashington began." 

" Foremost in whatever is detestable, Mr. Adams feels anxiety to 
curb the frontier population." 

'• This last presidential felony will be buried by Congress in the same 
criminal silence as its predecessors." 

" In the two first years of his presidency, he has contrived pretences 
to double the annual expense of government, by useless fleets, armies, 
sinecures, and jobs of every possible description." 

* If the reader will turn back to pages 23 and 24, he will see Mr. Jefferson's 
reproachful censures of the constitution, and oi'the eminent patriots who formed it.^ 

t Washington. 

^ Meaning Adams and Washington. The township of Quincy, the place of 
Mr. Adams's resideace, was formerly a part of the toAvnship of Braintree^ 



129 

" By sending' these ambassadors to Paris, Mr. Adams and his British 
faction designed to do nothing but mischief." 

" It is happy for Mr. Adams himself, as well as for his country, that 
he asserted an untruth." 

"In the midst of such a scene of profligacy and of usury, the Presi- 
dent has persisted, as long as he durst, in making his utmost efforts for 
provoking a French war." 

" When a chief magistrate is, both in his speeches and in his news- 
papers, constantly reviling France, he can neither expect nor desire to 
live long in peace with her. Take your choice, then, between Adams, 
war and beggary, and Jefferson, peace and competency." 

Such are some of the calumnies (the " Prospect before Us" contains 
many more) written and published by James Thompson Callender, in 
1800, when the election of a president was pending, Adams and Jefler- 
son being the rival candidates ; and such the character of the " book 
Callender was about to publish," which Mr. Jefferson said, would " in- 
form the thinking part of the nation," and enable these " to set the 
people to rights." _„^ 

Note B. Page 12. 

Letter from Mr. Jefferson to Lieutenant Governor Barry, of Kentucky, on 

the Judiciary. 

MoNTicKLLo, July 2, 1822. 
"Sir — Your favour of the 15th June is received, and I am very 
thankful for the kindness of its expressions respecting myself; but it 
ascribes to me merits which I do not claim. I was one only of a band 
devoted to the cause of independence, all of whom exerted equally 
their best endeavours for its success, and have a common right to the 
merits of its acquisition. So also in the civil revolution of 1801, very 
many and very meritorious Avere the worthy patriots who assisted in 
bringing back our government to its republican track. To preserve it 
in that, will require unremitting vigilance. Whether the surrender of 
our opponents, their reception into our camp, their assumption of our 
name, and apparent accession to our objects, may strengthen or weaken 
the genuine principles of republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is 
yet to be seen. I consider the party division of whig and fory the most 
wholesome which can exist in any government, and well worthy of be- 
ing nourished, to keep out those of a more dangerous character. We 
already see the power, installed for life, responsible to no authority 
(for impeachment is not even a scare-crow) advancing with a noiseless 
and steady pace to the great object of consolidation ; the foundations 
are deeply laid, by their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional 
state rights, and the removal of every check, every counterpoise, to 
the ingulphing power of which themselves are to make a sovereign 
part. If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, 
it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent to, and inca- 
pable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This 
will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reformation 
and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the 
other is inevitable. Before the canker is become inveterate, before 
its venom has reached so much of the body politic as to get bej'ond 
controul, remedy should be applied. Let the future appointments of 

18 



130 

judges be for four or six years, and renewable by the President and 
Senate. Tiiis will bring their conduct, at regular periods, under revi- 
sion and probation, and may keep them in equipoise between the gene- 
ral and special governments. We have erred in this point by copying 
England, where certainly it is a good thing to have the judges inde- 
pendent of the king ; but we have omitted to copy their caution also, 
which makes a judge removable on the address of both legislative 
houses. That there should be public functionaries independent of the 
nation, whatever may be their merit, is a solecism in a republic, of the 
tirst order of absurdity and inconsistence. Th. Jefferson." 



Note B. Page 18. 

It is forty years since Mr. Jefferson wrote his " Notes on Virginia." 
fn that small volume, (I believe his only work, unless his manual of 
parliamentary usages he viewed as another) besides answering various 
questions of a foreigner of distinction, about facts concerning that State, 
and which Mr. Jefferson's local knowledge and public employments in 
the district of country which gave him birth, enabled him to answer, 
he exhibited other facts, to detect the gross errors of some European 
philosophers, who, for want of due inquiry, had stated, that the various 
races of animals, and man himself, in the New World, compared with 
those of the Old World, were greatly inferior in size ; and man also in 
intellect ; or, to use Mr. Jefferson's own word, were " belittled." To 
overthrow this unfounded opinion, and triumphantly, was surely not a 
difficult task. The various tribes of untutored Indians, with whom the 
English colonists had frequent intercourse, had given decisive proofs 
of eminent intellectual powers, and of a natural eloquence which as- 
tonished their hearers. Governor Golden, of New-York, in his history 
of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, published in London in 1747, gave 
many specimens of the abilities and eloquence of their chiefs. Mr. 
Jefferson, in his " Notes," furnished the like evidence in the speech 
of Logan. The late Golonel John Gibson, who served in the war of 
our revolution, and whose last office, if I mistake not, was that of Sec- 
retary of the Territory (now State) of Indiana, informed me, that he 
was the interpreter of Logan's eloquent speech, above mentioned. 

After the decease of Mr. Rittenhouse, President of the American 
Philosophical Society, established at Philadelphia, Mr. Jefferson was 
elected to that office. But no communications, literary or philosophic- 
al, from him, appear among their subsequent transactions. 



Note C. Page 18. 

Correspondence with Mr. Adams. 

Extracts from a letter^ dated August 2, 1822, from T. Pickering to John 
Adams^ formerly President of the United States. 

" As no act of the Congress of the Thirteen United American Colo- 
nies was so distinguished as that by which their Independence of Great 
Britain was declared, the most particular history of that transaction 



131 

will probably be sought for, not merely as an interesting curiosity, but 
to do substantial justice to the abilities and energy of the leaders in that 
great measure." 

" By the public journals, it appears, that on the 7th of June, 1776, 
* certain resolutions respecting independency were moved and second- 
ed ;' and that on the 10th, the first resolution, ' that the United Colo- 
nies are and of right ought to be free and Independent States,' was 
adopted; and the next day the committee for preparing the declaration 
to that effect was chosen, consisting of ' Mr. Jefferson, Mr. J. Adams, 
Mr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, and Mr. R. R. Livingston.' Mr, Jefferson, 
being first on the list, became the chairman." 

"It was in the natural order of proceeding for the committee to meet 
and discuss the subject; and, after mature deliberation, to decide on the 
principles or propositions which should constitute the basis of the de- 
claration ; and to refer the making of the draught to the chairman, or 
to a sub-committee." 

" Some years ago, a copy of the declaration, as reported to Congress, 
was put into my hands, by some one of the Lee family. It was in Mr. 
Jefferson's hand-writing, and enclosed in a short letter from him to R. 
H. Lee, together with a copy of the declaration as amended in Con- 
gress. The amendments consisted chiefly in striking out ; and about 
one-fourth part of the whole was struck out." " To me, the altera- 
tions made in Congress seemed important and substantial amendments." 

" After all, the declaration does not contain many new ideas. It is 

rather a compilation of facts and sentiments stated and expressed, dur- 
ing the preceding eleven years, by those who wrote and vindicated the 
rights of the Colonies, including the proceedings of the Congress of 
1774 ; that is, from the year of the stamp act to the commencement of 
the war. The great merit of any compilation consists in the lucid and 
forcible arrangement of the matter. The reported declaration was 
evidently enfeebled by its redundancies." " I have thought it desir- 
able that the facts in this case should be ascertained. You alone can 
give a full statement of them, to be communicated to whom you think 
proper. To arrive at truth., and to assure to every one his just portion 
of applause, are the sole objects of these remarks." 

On the 6th of August Mr. Adams f\ivoured me with an answer ; and 
was pleased to communicate to me his short history of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, as it appears in the following extract from his 
letter of that date. 

" Mr. Jefferson came into Congress in June 1775, and brought with 
him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent at compo- 
sition. Writings of his were handed about remarkable, for the peculiar 
felicity of expression. Though a silent member in Congress, he was 
so prompt, frank, explicit and decisive upon committees, not even 
Samuel Adams was more so, that he soon seized upon my heart ; and 
upon this occasion I gave him my vote, and did all in my power to 
procure the votes of others. 1 think he had one more vote than any 
other, and that placed him at the head of the committee. I had the 
next highest number, and that placed me the second. The committee 
met, discussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me to 
make the draught ; I suppose, because we were the two highest on 
the list. The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make 
the draught. I said, I tAU not, you shall do it." [Then follows an 



132 

amicable altercation on this point ; but Mr. Adams persisting; in his 
refusal to make the draiicyht,] " Well," said Jefferson, " if you are 
deci lad, I will do as well as I can." Very well ; Avhen you have 
drawn it up we will have a meeting. A meeting we accordingly had, 
and conned the paper over. I was delighted with its high tone, and 
the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially that concern- 
ing Negro Slavery, which, though I knew his Southern Brethren 
would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose. 
There were other expressions which I would not have inserted if I 
had drawn it up ; particularly that which called the King a Tyrant. 
I thought this too personal ; for I never believed George to be a ty- 
rant in disposition and in nature : I alwaj's believed him to be deceived 
by his courtiers on both sides the Atlantic, and in his official capacity 
only cruel." 

" I thought the expression too passionate and too much like scolding 
for so grave and solemn a document ; but as Franklin and Sherman 
were to inspect it afterwards, I thought it would not become me to 
strike it out. 1 consented to report it ; and do not now remember that 
I made or suggested a single alteration. We reported it to the Com- 
mittee of Five. It was read ; and I do not remember that Franklin 
or Sherman criticised any thing. We were all in haste ; Congress was 
impatient ; and the instrument was reported, as I believe, in Jefferson's 
hand-writing, as he first drew it. Congress cit off about a quarter part 
of it, as I expected they would ; but they obliterated some of the best 
of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if any thing in it was. I 
have long wondered that the original draught has not been published. 
I suppose the reason is, the vehement Philippic against Negro Slaverj'. 
As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it but what had been 
hackneyed in Congress for two years before. The substance of it is 
contained in the declaration of rights and the violation of those rights, 
in the Journals of Congress in 1774. Indeed the essence of it is con- 
tained in a pamphlet voted and printed by the town of Boston before 
the first Congress met ; composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one 
of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel Adams." 



Note D. Page 18. 

Mr. Jeffersoii's Draught of the Declaration of independence. This is 
placed in the left-hand column ; and the Declaration^! as amended and 
adopted by Congress., in the right-hand column.^ of each page., for the 
convenience of comparing them. 

Mr. Jefferson's Draught, as reported by The Declaration, as amended and adopt- 
the Committee to Congress. ed by Congi'ess. 

A Declaration by the Represen- A Declaration by the Represen- 
tatives of the United States of tatives of the United States of 
America in General Congress America, in Congress assem- 
assembled. bled. 

When in tlie course of human 
events it becomes necessary for 



133 



Mr. Jefferson's Draught, 
one people to dissolve the politi- 
cal bands which have connected 
them with another, and to assume 
among the powers of the earth 
the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of 
nature's god entitle them, a de- 
cent respect to the opinions of 
mankind requires that they should 
declare the causes which impel 
them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self 
evident ; that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with inherent and 
inalienable rights ; that among 
these are life, libert}^ and the pur- 
suit of happiness ; that to secure 
these rights, governments are in- 
stituted among men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of 
the governed ; that whenever any 
form of government becomes de- 
structive of these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to 
abolish it, and to institute new 
government, laying it's foundation 
on such principles, and organizing 
it's powers in such form, as to 
them shall seem most likely to 
efl'ect their safety and happi- 
ness, prudence indeed will dictate 
that governments long established 
should not be changed tor light 
and transient causes, and accord- 
ingly all experience hath shewn 
that mankind are more disposed to 
suffer, while evils are sufferable, 
than to right themselves by abolish- 
ing the forms to which they are 
accustomed. but when a long 
train of abuses and usurpations, 
begun at a distinguished period, 
and pursuing invariably the same 
object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it 
is their right, it is their duty, to 
throw off such government, and to 
provide new guards for their future 
security, such has been the pa- 
tient sufferance of these colonies ; 
and such is now the necessitv 



Declaration as adopted. 



This paragraph of the draught 
remained unaltered. 



We hold these truths to be self 
evident ; that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed, by 
their Creator, with certain unalien- 
able rights ; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. That, to secure these 
rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the 
governed ; that, whenever any 
form of government becomes de- 
structive of these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to 
abolish it, and to institute new 
government, laying its foundation 
on such principles, and organizing 
its powers in such form, as to them 
shall seem most likely to effect 
their safety and happiness. Pru- 
dence, indeed will dictate, that gov- 
ernments long established should 
not be changed for light and tran- 
sient causes ; and, accordingly, all 
experience hath shewn, that man- 
kind are more disposed to suffer, 
while evils are sufferable, than to 
right themselves by abolishing the 
forms to which the}' are accus- 
tomed. But when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing 
invariably the same object, evinces 
a design to reduce them under ab- 
solute despotism, it is their right, 
is their duty, to throw off such gov- 
ernment, and to provide new guards 
for their future security. Such 
has been the patient sufferance 
of these colonies ; and such is now 
the necessity which constrains 
them to alter their former systems 



134 



Mr. Jefferson's Draught. 
which constrains them to expunge 
their former systems of govern- 
ment, the history of the present 
king of Great Britain, is a history 
of unremitting injuries and usurpa- 
tions, among which appears no 
sohtary fact to contradict the uni- 
form tenor of the rest ; but all 
have in direct object the establish- 
ment of an absolute t3'ranny over 
these states. to prove this let 
facts be submitted to a candid 
world, for the truth of which we 
pledge a faith yet unsullied by 
falsehood. 

He has refused his assent to laws 
the most wholesome and neces- 
sary for the public good, 
he has forbidden his governors to 
pass laws of immediate and 
pressing importance, unless sus- 
pended in their operation till 
his assent should be obtained ; 
and when so suspended, he has 
neglected utterly to attend to 
them, 
he has refused to pass other laws 
for the accommodation of large 
districts of people, unless those 
people would relinquish the 
right of representation in the 
legislature ; a right inestimable 
to them, and formidable to t}'^- 
rants onl}'. 
he has called together legislative 
bodies at places unusual, un- 
comfortable, and distant from 
the depository of their public 
records, for the sole purjjose of 
fatiguing them into compliance 
with his measures. 
he has dissolved Representative 
houses repeatedly and continual- 
ly, for opposing with manly 
firmness his invasions on the 
rights of the people, 
he has refused for a long time af- 
ter such dissolutions to cause 
others to be elected, whereby 
the legislative powers, incapa- 
ble of annihilation, have return- 
ed to the people at large for 



Declaration as adopted, 
of government. The history of the 
present king of Great Britain is a 
history of repeated injuries and 
usurpations, all having, in direct 
object, the establishment of an ab- 
solute tyranny over these states. 
To prove this, let facts be submit- 
ted to a candid world. 



Kot altered. 

He has forbidden his governors 
to pass laws of immediate and pres- 
sing importance, unless suspended 
in their operation till his assent 
should be obtained ; and, when 
so suspended, he has utterly neg- 
lected to attend to them. 



J\''ot altered. 



JVot altered. 



He has dissolved representative 
houses repeatedly, for opposing 
with manly firmness his invasions 
on the rights of the people. 



JVot altered. 



135 



Mr. Jefferson's Draught. Declaration as adopted. 

Iheir exercise, the state remain- 
ing' in the mean time exposed to 
all the dangers of invasion from 
without and convulsions within. 

he has endeavoured to prevent the 
population of these states ; for 
that purpose obstructing the 

laws for naturalization of for- »Vot altered. 

eigners ; refusing to pass others 
to encourage their migration 
hither ; and raising the condi- 
tions of new appropriations of 
lands. 

he has suffered the administration He has obstructed the adminis- 
of justice totally to cease in some tration of justice, by refusing his 
of these states, refusing his as- assent to laws for establishing ju- 
sent to laws for establishing ju- diciary powers. 



diciary powers. 

he has made our judges dependent 
on his will alone, for the tenure 
of their offices and the amount 
and paiment of their salaries. 

he has erected a multitude of new 
offices by a self-assumed power, 



He has made judges dependent 
on his will alone, for the tenure of 
their otlices, and the amount and 
payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of 
new offices, and sent hither swarms 
and sent hither swarms of offi- of officers to harass our people, 
cers to harrass our people, and and eat out their substance, 
to cat out their substance. 

he has kept among us, in times of He has kept among us, in times 
peace, standing armies and ships of peace, standing armies, without 
of war, without the consent of the consent of our legislatures, 
our legislatures. 

he has affected to render the mili- 
tary independent of, and superi- -^'ot altered. 
or to the civil power. 

he has combined with others to He has combined with others, to 
subject us to a jurisdiction for- subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
eign to our constitutions and un- to our constitution, and unacknow- 
acknoleged by our laws ; giving ledged by our laws ; giving his as- 
his assent to their acts of pre- sent to their acts of pretended le- 
tended legislation, gislation, 

for quartering large bodies of arm-~) 
ed troops among us ; 

for protecting them by a mock trial 
from punishment tor any mur- 
ders which they should commit 
on the inhabitants of these states; 

for cutting off our trade with all 
parts of the world ; 

for imposing taxes on us without 
our consent; 

for depriving us of the benefits of 
trial by jury ; 



\o( altered. 



for depriving us, in mnnj cases, 
of the benefits of trial by jury ; 



136 



Mr. Jefferson's Draught. 
for transporting us beyond seas to 
be tried for pretended offences ; 
for abolishing' the free system of 
English laws in a neighbouring 
province, establishing therein an 
arbitrary government, and en- 
larging it's boundaries so as to 
render it at once an example 
and tit instrument for introduc- 
ing the same absolute rule iuto 
these states ; 
for taking away our charters, abol- 
ishing our most valuable laws, 
and altering fundamentally the 
forms of our governments ; 
for suspending our own legisla- 
tures, and declaring themselves 
invested with power to legislate 
for us in all cases whatsoever; 
he has abdicated government here, 
withdrawing his governors, and 
declaring us out of his allegi- 
ance and protection, 
he has plundered our seas, ravag- 
ed our coasts, burnt our towns, 
and destroyed the lives of our 
people, he is at this time trans- 
porting large armies of foreign 
mercenaries, to compleat the 
works of death, desolation and 
tyranny, already' begun with cir- 
cumstances of cruelty and per- 
fidy unworthy the head of a ci- 
vilized nation, 
he has endeavoured to bring on 
the inhabitants of our frontiers 
the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warfiire i5 
an undistinguished destruction of 
all ages, sexes, and conditions of 
existence. 
!he has incited treasonable insurrec- 
tions of our fellow citizens, with 
the allurements of forfeiture and 
contiscation of our propert}'. 
!he has constrained others, taken 
captives on the high seas, to bear 
arms against their country, to 
become the executioners of their 
friends and brethren, or to fall 
themselves by their hands. 



Declaration as adopted. 

JVot altered. 

for Hbolishing the free system of 
English laws in a neighbouring pro- 
vince, establishing therein an arbi- 
trary government, and enlarging 
its boundaries, so as to render it, 
at once, an example and fit instru- 
ment for introducing the same ab- 
solute rule into these colonies ; 



Aoi altered. 



JVot altered. 



He has abdicated government 
here, by declaring us out of his 
protection, and waging war against 
us. 

He has plundered our seas, ra- 
vaged our coasts, burnt our towns, 
and destroyed the lives of our 
people. 

He is at this time, transporting 
large armies of foreign mercena- 
ries to complete the works of death, 
desolation and tyranny, already be- 
gun with circumstances of cruelty 
and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in 
the most barbarous ages, and total- 
ly unworthy the head of a civiliz- 
ed nation. 

He has constrained our fellow 
citizens, taken captive on the high 
seas, to bear arms against their 
country, to become the execution- 
ers of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insur- 
rections amongst us, and has en- 
deavoured to bring on the inhabit- 
ants of our frontiers, the merciless 
Indian savages, whose known rule 
of warfare is an undistinguished 
destruction, of all ages, sexes, aad 
conditions. 



137 



Mr. JefTerson's Draught. 

he has waged cruel war against 
human nature itself, violating 
it's most sacred rights of life 
and liberty in the persons of a 
distant people, who never offend- 
ed him, captivating and carryin j 
them into slavery n an ther 
hemisphere, or to incur misera- 
ble death in their transportation 
thither, this piratical warfare, 
the opprobrium of infidel powers, 
is the warfare of a Christian 
king of Great Britain, deter- 
mined to keep open a market 
where MEN should be bought 
and sold, he has prostituted his 
negative for suppressing every 
legislative attempt to prohibit or 
to restrain this execrable com- 
merce, and that this assemblage 
of horrors might want no fact of 
distinguished die, he is now ex- 
citing those very people to rise 
in arms among us, and to pur- 
chase that liberty of which he 
has deprived them, by murder- 
ing the people upon whom he 
also obtruded them : thus pay- 
ing off former crimes committed 
against the liberties of one peo- 
ple, with crimes which he urges 
them to commit against the lives 
of another. 

In every stage of these oppres- 
sions, we have petitioned for re- 
dress in the most humble terms ; 
our repeated petitions have been 
answered only by repeated in- 
jury, a prince whose character 
is thus marked by every act 
which may define a tyrant, is un- 
fit to be the ruler of a people who 
mean to be free, future ages 
will scarce believe that the har- 
diness of one man adventured, 
within the short compass of 
twelve years only, to build a 
foundation so broad and undis- 
guised, for tyranny over a peo- 
ple fostered and fixed in prin- 
ciples of freedom. 



DeclsLiatioQ as adopted. 



Struck out. 



In every stage of these oppres- 
sions, we have petitioned for re- 
dress, in the most humble terms: 
our repeated petitions have been 
answered only by repeated injury. 
A prince whose character is thus 
marked by every act which may 
define a tyrant, is unfit to be the 
ruler of a free people. 



19 



138 



Mr. Jefferson's Draught. 
Nor have we been vvanling in 
attentions to our British brethren. 
M'e have warned them from time 
to time of attempts by their legisla- 
ture to extend a jurisdiction over 
these our states, we have remind- 
ed them of the circumstances of 
ouremigration and settlement here, 
no one of which could warrant so 
strange a pretension : that these 
were effected at the expence of 
our own blood and treasure, unas- 
sisted by the wealth or the strength 
of Great Britain : that in constitut- 
ing indeed our several forms of 
government, we had adopted one 
common king, thereby laying- a 
foundation for perpetual league 
and amity with them : but that 
submission to their parliament was 
no part of our constitution, nor 
even in idea, if history may be 
credited : and we appealed to their 
native justice and magnanimity, as 
well as to the tyes of our common 
kindred, to disavow these usurpa- 
tions, which were likely to inter- 
rupt our connection and corres- 
pondence, they too have been 
deaf to the voice of justice and of 
consanguity ; and when occasions 
have been given them by the re- 
gular course of their laws, of re- 
moving from their councils the di'S- 
turbers of our harmony, they have 
by their free election re-established 
them in powei-. at this very time 
too, they are permitting their chief 
magistrate to send over not only 
soldiers of our common blood, but 
Scotch and foreign mercenaries to 
invade and destroy us. these facts 
have given the last stab to agoni- 
zing affection ; and manly spirit 
bids us to renounce forever these 
unfeeling brethren, we must en- 
deavour to forget our former love 
for them, and to hold them as we 
hold the rest of mankind, enemies 
in war, in peace friends, we might 
have been a free and a great peo- 
ple together ; but a communication 



Declaration as adopted. 
Nor have we been Avanting in 
attentions to our British brethren. 
AVe have warned them, from time 
to time, of attempts by their legis- 
lature, to extend an unwarrantable 
jurisdiction over us. We have re- 
minded them of the circumstances 
of our emigration and settlement 
here. We have appealed to their 
native justice and magnanimity, 
and we have conjured them, by the 
ties of our common kindred, to 
disavow these usurpations, which 
would inevitably interrupt our con- 
nexions and correspondence. They 
too, have been deaf to the voice 
of justice and of consanguinity. 
We must, therefore, acquiesce in 
the necessity, which denounces our 
separation, and hold them, as we 
hold the rest of mankind, enemies 
in war, in peace friends. 



139 



Mr. Jefferson's Draught, 
of grandeur and of freedom, it 
seems is below tiieir dignity, be it 
so, since they will have it. the 
road to happiness and to glory is 
open to us too ; we will climb it 
apart from them, and acquiesce in 
the necessit}' which denounces our 
eternal separation ! 

*\Ve therefore the Representa- 
tives of the United States of Ame- 
rica, in General Congress assem- 
bled, do, in the name, and by au- 
thority of the good people of these 
states, reject and renounce all alle- 
giance and subjection to the kings 
of Great Britain, and all others who 
may hereafter claim by, through, 
or under them ; we utterly dissolve 
all political connection which may 
heretofore have subsisted between 
us and the parhament or people of 
Great Britain ; and finally we do 
assert these colonies to be free 
and independent states, and that as 
free and independent states, they 
have full power to levy war, con- 
clude peace, contract alliances, 
establish commerce, and to do all 
other acts and things which inde- 
pendent states may of right do. and 
for the support of this declaration, 
we mutually pledge to each other 
our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor. 



DeclsgratioQ as adopted. 



*\Ve, therefore, the Representa- 
tives of the United Sates of Ame- 
rica, in General Congress assem- 
bled, appealing to the supreme 
Judge of the world for the recti- 
tude of our intentions, do, in the 
name, and by the authority of the 
good people of these colonies, 
solemnly publish and declare. That 
these United Colonies are, and of 
right ought to be, Free and Inde- 
pendent States ; that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance to the 
British Crown, and that all political 
connexion between them and the 
state of Great Britain is, and ought 
to be, totally dissolved ; and that, 
as free and independent states, 
they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, 
establish commerce, and to do all 
other acts and things which inde- 
pendent states may of right do. 
And, for the support of this decla- 
ration, with a firm reliance on the 
protection of divine providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other, 
our lives, our fortunes, and cur 
sacred honour. 



Mr. Jefferson was manifestly displeased with the alterations made in 
Congress, in his Draught of the Declaration. In his letter of July 8, 
1776, to Richard Henry Lee, he says, " I enclose you a copy of the 
'" Declaration of Independence as agreed to by the house, and also as 
*' originally framed, you will judge whether it is the better or worse 
" for the critics."' — Far from being " worse," I think unprejudiced 
readers will pronounce the alterations and amendments, made by the 
" critics" in Congress, substantial improvements ; and that to those 
" critics" Mr. Jefferson is indebted for much of the applause which has 
been bestowed upon him as the author of the Declaration. 



Note E. Page 29. 

Fifteen millions of dollars were the stipulated price for Louisiana ; 
not an immoderate sum for so extensive a territory. But under the cir- 
cumstances I have staled, it will not be deemed a wild conjecture, that 



140 

for the round sum of ten millions, the same object might have been 
accomplished. 

Supplies of provisions and of other articles had been furnished by 
American merchants to the French Government, through the Agents 
of France and her Colonies, for which payments had not been made 
Those merchants had also sustained great damages by a wanton or 
heedless embargo of their vessels in the ports of France. For these 
supplies and damages, our merchants were entitled to payments and 
indemnities. For these purposes, and for certain captures, three mil- 
lions and three quarters of a million of the fifteen millions of dollars 
were appropriated. The captures, or prizes, were those only which 
on the 30th of September, 1800, had not been definitively condemned. 
This is the date of the treaty negotiated by President Adams's minis- 
ters, Ellsworth, Davie and Murray. The claims for other prizes, to 
the estimated amount of twenty millions of dollars, prior to that date, 
were by the same treaty abandoned. 

In arrnnging the Louisiana business, three instruments in writing 
were employed. One was denominated a treaty, by which Bonaparte 
then First Consul of France, ceded to the United States the Province 
of Louisiana. By the second, called a convention, the^ United States 
stipulated to create six per cent stock, to the amount of eleven mil- 
lions and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be delivered to the 
French Government, or its agent. By the third instrument, also called 
a convention, the examination and ascertainment of the aforementioned 
debts and claims of American citizens, were provided for; and an Ameri- 
can Board was constituted for that purpose. As France had no inter- 
est therein, — all the liquidated claims l3eing to be paid out of the trea- 
sury of the United States, from the appropriated fund of three millions, 
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, — the examination and adjust- 
ment of the claims ought to have been made by American authority 
exclusively, without the contaminating interference of a French Bureau. 
But instead of this, express provision was made for such interference. 
The consequence was, the further plunder of American merchants ; 
who, to obtain three fourths of their honest dues, were obliged respec- 
tively to sacrifice the other fourth in gratifications to the French Bu- 
reau. Such was the information I received in the midst of these tran- 
sactions.* It might have been expected, from the high reputation of 
the late Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, as a statesman and a lawyer, 
that he would have taken care to guard the American merchants 
against the mischief here stated. He, undoubtedly, was the Principal 
in negotiating the Louisiana treaty and conventions. As the resident 
minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, he could not 
have been unacquainted with the general character of the persons ad- 
ministering the French Government, and their train of under officers, 
against whose impositions the clearest and strongest guards were ne- 
cessary. 

* It is probable that divers honest claims were rejected by the French Bureau. 
A Boston merchant (an old friend of mine) informed me, that he had two claims 
— one for five thousand dollars, and another lor fifty thousand dollar:j, both equally 
well founded. The small claim was allowed, and the large one rejected. His 
as-ent had not been authorized to give the twenty five percent. g:ratification to the 
French Burc au. The rejection of such claims made room for others unfounded, 
for which hio^her ^ratiiicatious may have been given. 



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